Hinata's Realization
by Broken Eagle Wing
Summary: This is an attempted sequal to Lonely Birthday. My last attempt at a sequal sucked and i deleted it. I hope this one is better. Naruto, Hinata, Sakura, and Shikamaru are given a mission that could be the start of a hidden war.
1. Vandalism

I didn't think my last story was any good so I removed it. It didn't do its original any justice. Plus I never thought I was any good at writing anyway. Here is a better attempt at a sequel to "Lonely Birthday".

Chapter 1

It Was a Matter of Time

Hinata couldn't understand it. The Hokage was there. Jiraiya was there. Even Sakura was there. Hinata knew that Jiraiya had been Naruto's mentor the last 3 years, the Hokage cared for Naruto very much; Sakura was also part of Naruto's genin team and probably had a bond with him. But she didn't understand what was going on. Why would this require all three of these people's attention, especially from someone so high ranking as the Hokage?

Shikamaru stood next to Hinata. They were both chuunin, in fact Naruto was the only member of their academy class that was still a genin, though Shikamaru had serious doubts about any of their class being able to defeat Naruto in a fight. They had just arrived at the Hokage's office when Shizune looked sadly at Naruto and informed them that they should give their report to the Hokage at Naruto's apartment.

The three of them had been sent on a mission that required very good strategy, Shikamaru; caution and the ability to see what shouldn't be seen, Hinata; and someone with speed and who could serve as backup, Naruto. Naruto had become the fastest in the village using the same speed technique the 4th had used. It wasn't that hard to understand. The 4th had been trained under Jiraiya, Naruto's life is forever connected to the 4th's if nothing else than because of the seal on his stomach, and the 4th's and Naruto's personalities were very similar. It made sense that Jiraiya would teach him the same techniques the 4th used.

Over all though, Shikamaru, who had been the leader of the team, was very impressed by the team's success on the mission. They had been contracted to steal some information on a scroll without it being known that the information was stolen. They also were supposed to assassinate the leader of the bandits that had the information. This again was supposed to be done without anyone knowing it was a ninja.

Shikamaru and Hinata scouted the camp of the mercenaries turned cutthroats while Naruto stood guard. Hinata used her eyes to get the position of everyone in the camp and the location of the information needed. Shikamaru had them watch the camp for 48 hours before doing anything. In the end the full 48 hours wasn't necessary, but it was best to be thorough on B rank missions. Shikamaru came up with the plan and they executed it flawlessly. Naruto was going to be the one to go into camp. He would enter so fast no one knew he was there, then he would kill the leader in his own tent while his second in command was in there. The 2nd was to be knocked out and blamed for the murder. Naruto would steal the scroll just before leaving the tent screaming that the leader was dead. In the confusion Naruto would slip away and they would all head back to Hidden Leaf Village.

The plan had required Naruto to entrust his forehead protector to Hinata while he completed the mission. She had just given it back to him when they were walking through the gates of the Leaf. Now they were standing just inside Naruto's apartment door. Shikamaru had wondered why the Hokage was there while they were going there. But now it was completely evident. There was something hanging in the air, it wasn't physical. Shikamaru thought that the 3 non team members and Naruto were radiating this thick feeling.

Shikamaru had been surprised with Naruto's professionalism on the mission. He had been very quiet, calm, and not really like the loudmouth he was inside the village. Apparently he had grown up. Now though Naruto was a very different kind of quiet. It was one of anger. Naruto didn't seem to be angry about the apartment though.

Hinata noticed immediately that the apartment was the same one Naruto had grown up in. Ever since Naruto had lived there the land lord couldn't rent it for the same price again. It had been empty most of the time Naruto had been gone and Naruto willingly moved into the same apartment at a lower rent. Now the apartment looked nothing like she remembered it looked like 3 years ago. It was a total mess, but more than that, one couldn't spend the night there.

Every piece of glass in the apartment was on the floor. Every mirror, drinking glass, picture frame, and window pane; nothing was left whole. The couch had been ripped to shreds and destroyed. The door had been busted down. The bed had been completely destroyed. Next to the door was a fox. It had been killed by a kunai meaning a ninja had done it. It had also been burnt symbolizing "Fire's defeat of the Fox Demon". Hinata remembered the reason the villagers had claimed they needed to burn the wooden fox every year in the ceremony. It was always held on October 10th, Naruto's birthday and the anniversary of the demon fox's defeat.

This one had been alive. It disgusted her that someone would do that to an innocent animal and then put it in a person's apartment. That was if she set aside that this was Naruto's apartment and she felt more for him than anyone else. Hinata looked around the room, there didn't appear to be anything that hadn't been damaged or destroyed.

"Why didn't the neighbors try to stop them, or at least call for some help? This couldn't have been done quietly." The question came from Sakura.

All three chuunin present watched as the other occupants of the room seemed to involuntarily react to the question. There wasn't so much of a physical reaction from any of them but the air seemed to get thicker with anger, sadness, guilt, and…secrets. Hinata noticed Naruto go to his dresser and pick up a slashed headband sitting on top of the dresser. It had been Sasuke's and it seemed to be the only thing left alone. Apparently the vandals had done this only to the stuff specific to Naruto.

No one had answered Sakura's question, or even attempted to venture a guess at a reason. After a few seconds Sakura understood. She had known about Naruto's secret since his first real mission back from his training. They were able to just barely save Gaara, but she had been told by Kakashi and Naruto. The Sand elder had also helped fuel the conversation but didn't give specific information about Naruto. What had hurt Sakura the most was that Naruto was in danger of the same risk as Gaara was in at the time. Naruto was in danger just by being alive. The Akatsuki would never stop hunting him. She feared for Naruto and he didn't even acknowledge her fear, but that was something that kind of reassured her. Now Naruto was just standing there looking at his home. It wasn't even safe anymore.

Shikamaru had been lazily looking over the destruction. He hadn't been cavalier about Naruto's loss but it didn't help that the damage wasn't fully assessed. There was something about this that everyone except him and Hinata knew. Sakura had shown a flash of not knowing, but now she seemed to know what was going on. She must have just been confused about the neighbor's actions.

Sakura bent down and picked up some of the glass surrounding her. She had been inadvertently grinding it into the floor just by her pacing. Hinata immediately moved to help out. She was not about to force Naruto to take care of it when she could help. Sakura's actions helped relieve her of her shyness and she joined in. Shikamaru was still thinking. Though what he thought about was normally kept hidden. Naruto seemed to be the one most unaffected by the damage. In fact he seemed almost oblivious to the state of the room if one saw that his anger wasn't directed at the damage.

"Hokage-sama. Request permission to give latest mission report." Sakura and Hinata immediately stopped cleaning. Shikamaru was quite shocked too. They had never seen Naruto act so uncaring about an injustice he saw. Why would he not care about it now? It was his apartment, he should be the one demanding justice. Now though, Naruto stood at perfect attention in front of the Hokage. He looked as if he was just another ninja reporting in to a superior instead of one of Tsunade's most loved in the village. Because of the odd situation and tension in the air only Jiraiya and Tsunade dared moved for a long time.

The Hokage had been caught off guard. She had expected Naruto to have more concern for his things than some mission report. Tsunade looked back at the apartment before looking at Naruto really hard. "It is customary for the team leader to give the report on a successful mission." She wasn't about to let Naruto go like that. He wasn't going to go on living like what ever the village did to him didn't matter.

Naruto never left perfect attention, the three chuunin had been so shocked that they were almost afraid to move. All three of them had almost predicted that Naruto would eventually crack and become his normal hyperactive and complaining self. Then he would declare revenge and go after whoever did this.

Shikamaru was the first to fully come out of his shock induced comma. Glancing around to make sure that he had taken in the whole room, Shikamaru stepped forward. The whole time he had been thinking however, Naruto has had to grow up living like this, alone. This isn't a lot of stuff really, a table set, a couch and a bed. But then again, they were all Naruto really had. "Ma'am, team leader Nara reporting to give official report."

Tsunade had to hand it to Naruto. His friends were definitely loyal and oddly enough willing to go along with what he was planning. She could see that Shikamaru didn't really know what was going on, but he saw that Naruto didn't really want to deal with it right now. She had no choice but to accept the leader's request to give the report.

Shikamaru gave a report that could have been used as an example to some of her jounin. It was simple, concise and it gave her not only the success but also informed her of the capabilities of the team members and their ability to work together. Shikamaru had taken into account all three of their respective skills and devised a plan to perfectly fit each one's strengths.

The report only lasted a couple of minutes. It served its purpose however. Naruto was able to get a handle on the situation and to be the person he was. He put on that false smile. That smile he always wore, the one that made him look like a moron. He dropped the seriousness and picked up the happy go lucky attitude. He almost started to brag about how he could have defeated the whole group by himself, but someone put her hand on his shoulder.

She couldn't believe it. After all this time of watching him, she hadn't been able to see it until now. She had always known he had deep pain and that he was determined. She had always known that he was despised. What she didn't know was how much it really affected him. His smile for all those years had been only a fake. He had been hiding is true feelings behind it for years. Probably even before she knew anything about him. Yes he was determined. Yes he would never give up, but he was deeper than all the others saw. She had thought she had figured him out, seen his true strength. But now she was really seeing it. It was the ability to show a happy face when all he really wanted to do was cry or show anger.

Hinata couldn't take it anymore. She started to cry. Her hand slipped from Naruto's shoulder as her mind seemed to go into a kind of hyper drive. She wanted to sit, cry, and help clean up all at once. What ended up occurring was a beautiful girl of 16 years of age, trying to pick up some of the larger pieces of the broken chair and failing miserably. Her eyes were clouded over by the steady stream of tears flowing from her eyes.

If Naruto's almost sudden attitude change from sad to happy-go-lucky didn't put someone into momentary mental shock, then the heir to the Hyuuga Clan's sudden inability to pick up some broken pieces of wood did the job. Hinata couldn't see even the larger pieces because of the tears flooding her eyes. Sakura was much more used to Naruto's odd shift in normal behavior to acting stupid. She was the least shocked by Naruto's sudden shift in attitude, but she was thrown back into mental shock as she watched Hinata collapse in tears. On instinct Sakura walked over and helped Hinata. The rest of the chair was easily picked up, but Sakura was more concerned for Hinata than Naruto's apartment. There was no reason for Hinata to be crying like this. It was an awful sight, but they had all seen worse damage before. Why did Hinata care about it so much if even Naruto didn't seem to care?

Naruto had been in a stunned sadness since he felt Hinata's hand on his shoulder. He didn't expect her to try and console him. In his surprise about someone actually touching him in a soft manner in order to console him, he dropped his defensive mask. He was once again angry, and sad. He did have slightly more control than he did before though.

Shikamaru saw the way Hinata had reacted to Naruto's seeming indifference to the violation of his own home. He saw Sakura move to console and quiet Hinata. The real prudent thing to do though was to start looking for information and catch who did this. He started to run through all of the information he could remember on anyone that would want to do this to Naruto. Instantly Shikamaru remembered the parent's reactions to Naruto's entering the ninja academy and their reactions to his passing the genin exam. In fact it seemed that the whole village looked at Naruto with distain. It didn't take a ninja to notice their eyes as they looked at Naruto. If looks could kill, there would be 4 or 5 convictions of murdering Naruto every day if not many more. Shikamaru had always found it odd how Naruto seemed to never notice the looks and mistreatment he got.

Instead of narrowing down the list of people who would want to do this, the list had expanded beyond what Shikamaru thought prudent. "We need to find out who did this." Shikamaru's words contrasted with Hinata's now light sniffles.

"It will do no good to look for evidence. Those who did this wouldn't have left any real clues, maybe some false ones, but none that were not left on purpose." Oddly enough it was Naruto that had said this.

Shikamaru was about to protest when the 5th Hokage cut him off. "I can find out, whether they left evidence or not. They will be punished."

"You don't want to do that." It was Jiraiya's voice this time that dissuaded finding the vandals. "It would take too much of your power to find out. You also don't want to reveal anything valuable to the misinformed members of our population."

This greatly confused Shikamaru. What would the Hokage be revealing and why would it take too much of the Hokage's power to find the vandals of a genin's apartment. If it was a shinobi then others most likely knew about them doing the work. Besides crimes against another konoha ninja were strictly forbidden and harshly enforced. Then he noticed it again. It was there, the thickness of the air that wasn't there. It felt like it was a secret that no one wanted to tell. Something that they felt guilty about.

Hinata wasn't thinking along the same lines of Shikamaru. She had known the secret since Naruto had told her on his latest birthday. She had finally gotten over her shyness and tried to comfort him on the saddest day of the year for him. Her father had even sent a few Hyuuga branch members to assassinate him for breaking the 3rd's law about telling someone in her generation. She couldn't help but feel even more respect for the man that had endured treatment like this everyday growing up.

Naruto was the first one to speak up after Jiraiya's comment to Tsunade. "Is there another mission you have ready for us or are we free for the day?" The question was directed at Tsunade.

Sakura was caught off guard by that question. Naruto was seemingly acting like there was nothing wrong with the apartment while she was still trying to clean it up. Now he was getting ready to leave when any normal ninja would be expecting the rest of the day off because they just returned from a week long mission. She herself was tired because she had spent the entire day training with Tsunade. She had been learning the technique her teacher used to regenerate in battle.

Tsunade's answer was slow in coming. It was also not what any of the 3 chuunin were expecting. "There is a mission I was planning on giving a more experienced team, but if you request it you can have it. The only problem is that it is B ranked and been deemed necessary for a 4 man team. Sakura would do to be the fourth member on this mission."

Naruto looked at Shikamaru for confirmation. He wanted to get out of the village. Shikamaru didn't have to be a mind reader to see that. He sighed to himself thinking how troublesome it was having the only genin in their academy class assigned to him. Almost reluctantly, but with a more air of being tired and lazy Shikamaru turned towards the Hokage and nodded his acceptance of the mission.

"You are to protect Nami Shiro. He is the son of a noble lord. His father has hired you to protect his son while he travels to and attends the Fire Lord's daughter's marriage. The marriage will take place in the Fire capital. Lord Nami believes that his son is the target of a Cloud shinobi's mission. He believes someone has hired a cloud ninja to assassinate his son. I do not know or care about who hired the cloud ninja, you are simply to escort his son and return him safely home. Defend yourselves but don't go looking for a fight. There will be cloud at the wedding because as you all know the groom is the son of a lower lord from the Country of Cloud. There will undoubtedly be shinobi protecting him. You have your mission."

Sakura was a little shocked at first, but was able to listen and pay attention to the details. Shikamaru thought the whole idea was very troublesome but idly listened to the Hokage and thought of the best way to accomplish the mission. Hinata had to admit to herself that she was still tired from the day's traveling but she could endure more if necessary. Naruto had already placed his happy mask back on his face and was ready to leave again. But he turned to Shikamaru for orders.

"Be at the west gate in one hour. Be ready to travel until nightfall. It will take us the rest of today and until noon tomorrow to reach the Nami estate." With that the three chuunin decided to leave the apartment and get ready for the new mission.

Naruto was left alone in the trashed apartment with the Hokage and the perverted hermit. They both regarded him with a look of understanding. The Hokage was a little bit more confused than Jiraiya though. She was still trying to decide why he had chosen this course of action. "You know, your team leader is the only one of your team that doesn't know. It is not a good idea to keep something like that a secret from your leader. Especially Shikamaru, he has the intelligence to put it to use rather than hate you. Him knowing could influence the outcome of this mission."

"I know what it means when my friends do not know who I am. I have lived it my whole life. Tsunade, you know what happened last time I told someone. Her father tried to have me killed. And now that the whole village knows I am back and that Sakura knows and hasn't rejected me, they are doing this. I won't let them start doing it to my friends. I must start to prepare for my next mission." Naruto was serious but he still hid his true emotions from the world.

Jiraiya and Tsunade left the apartment and headed back to the Hokage tower. Jiraiya spoke just as they got to the street. "Why did you really give them that mission? What did you not tell them?"

Tsunade looked at Jiraiya with a little bit of shock and concern. She must be slipping. Normally he was blinded by the size of her chest. Now he had seen right through what she had said. She had expected Shikamaru to notice and realize there was something more about this mission. But if Jiraiya had figured it out that meant that pretty much the whole team she was sending had figured it out, including Naruto. He had gotten much more intelligent in his training away from Konoha. "We suspect it isn't cloud nin like the lord thinks but really sound that are trying to make Konoha look weak. They want to make Konoha look weak so they can ally with cloud against us. Or at least get cloud to join on their side once the war starts. Either way, there is a war between us and the sound that is probably going to start with this mission."

Jiraiya wasn't shocked, or at least he didn't show it. Instead he lowered his head with a serious look on his face. This mission was going to start a war. If that were true, then it was most likely that one member of the team just sent was going to die. "Is that why you sent two with medical training on the team?"

Tsunade was expecting Jiraiya to come to that conclusion. In fact it was true she had expected the team to need more metical training than normal. But the medical nin in question also had very strong fighting capabilities. Hinata had only had some light medical training for quick field techniques. Sakura had been taught almost everything Tsunade knew so the team was well off medically. As for fighting capability, Tsunade didn't know if they were ready. Shikamaru's intellect could win most fights, but some times even that wasn't enough. Hinata had her Byakugan, which helped with her gentle fist style and her defenses. She had been trained in the techniques of her clan and could fight with great skill. Naruto and Sakura were the wild cards.

Tsunade generally considered Sakura to be a much better fighter than most chuunin because of her precise control of her chakra and her strength. She had started out as a genjutsu style fighter though. So Sakura realistically had more potential at fighting ability than even her. The problem was that since Sakura became Tsunade's apprentice, she hadn't gotten much battle experience.

Naruto was a different story all together. Tsunade had no doubt that Naruto had been trained in advanced techniques and in that respect he was mid level Jounin in strength. He also had the stamina and chakra reserves of a small army even without the Kyuubi. The Kyuubi did also give him quicker healing. There was also no question about his fighting experience. He had probably gotten into more fights for his life with Jiraiya, knowing Jiraiya's preferred method of training, and he probably had to fend off a few of the other countries' shinobi. The question was could he fight with strategy in mind rather than just a frontal assault. He also tended to disregard warnings and just fought rather than think.

The mission has little chance of success, the real mission is to stop Orochimaru from making us start a war with cloud or from making us look weak.


	2. Traveling

Chapter 2

Traveling

Shikamaru was surprised to see Sakura standing at the gate, already there waiting for him. He was 15 minutes early. There was no need for her to be there this early. Then again Hinata had shown up 20 minutes early for their first mission together. Apparently that had worn off a little bit as she was only right behind Shikamaru. Sakura's guess put Naruto at showing up in 13 minutes. Exactly 2 minutes before the time to leave. He ended up arriving in 10 minutes, he was 5 minutes early for the mission.

Naruto had been sitting on the wall for the past half hour. He had gotten his apartment clean by breaking the larger bed and couch pieces into more manageable sizes and then carrying the large pieces to the dumpster designated for his building. He then got a broom and swept the medium to small pieces into a pile and then put them all in a box, which he took care of in the same way. The very small pieces, he used a broom and a pan to put them into a garbage bag and took the last of the trash out. It surprisingly took very little time to clean up his apartment. He really didn't have much. When he was done the apartment looked very much like an apartment that someone was moving into rather than already living in. Except for a few stacked frameless pictures in the corner, there was no real sign that anyone lived there.

Naruto decided not to worry about the furniture or other things as he left for his mission. He would wait, but it was worth it. He left the apartment with a lot of time before he had to meet at the gate. He had to replace some of his scrolls and kunai but there was a weapons shop on the way.

Naruto arrived at the gate long before anyone else would. He was a half hour early. No one would have expected him to arrive more than a couple of minutes before the designated time. He decided to sit on top of the high wall and wait. He could watch the village from that height. He liked looking at it from above, it seemed to hate him less like that. He remembered the look the weapons store owner had given him. It was one of distrust and hate. He had tried to buy only a few kunai and a couple of scrolls. The extra's he had in his apartment had all been ruined. The owner didn't trust him and wouldn't sell to him. He said that Naruto would only kill him and take the money if he sold him the kunai. Naruto had ended up paying extra in order for the store owner to "ignore his conscience". It was just one more reminder that this village hated him. The village he loved hated him.

Naruto watched as his new teammates arrived. Shikamaru looked a little uncomfortable waiting with the two girls. It seemed that Sakura made him a little on edge because of her strength and skill. Shikamaru had gotten used to Hinata's odd lack of confidence to spite her high level of skill and abilities. Hinata always seemed very timid to Naruto but now she seemed just slightly so. Why does she seem normal now and but every other time I've seen her she is very nervous?

Naruto then realized that he had been watching the trio for 10 minutes and there was only 5 minutes to the time they were to leave. He silently slid off the wall and landed behind Shikamaru. Sakura and Hinata had been standing closer to the gate but turned towards Shikamaru and the rest of the village. Shikamaru had been looking out past the two females and into the forest. He didn't react to Naruto's sudden appearance but he knew he was there because of the girl's reactions.

Sakura's was a slight gasp of shock followed by a superhuman punch to Naruto's face for startling her. Hinata's reaction had come a split second earlier because she had seen him in mid fall. Her bloodline allowed her a larger field of view. She started to blush just before Sakura had gasped and then got surprised and worried herself when Naruto received a blow that should have killed him. How could Sakura, a medic nin, be so unconcerned for a teammate and fellow Konoha ninja?

The answer came when Naruto didn't even pretend that the punch had been unexpected. He simply accepted it. When he pulled himself out of the hole in the wall behind where he was hit he simply spat out the blood that had formed in his mouth. He had cut the inside of his mouth on his tooth. Sakura was a little angry at this and refused to look at Naruto. Hinata got worried at the sight of the blood and went over to check him out. To Hinata's, and the other two chunin's surprise even though they didn't show it, Naruto blew off the attention and asked Shikamaru what the plan was.

This made everyone more worried over Naruto than any hit Sakura could have given him. He always liked attention. Even if it was from a shy girl. To just completely brush it aside and move on as if the girl wasn't there made everyone feel off. It hurt Hinata the most though.

She had seen him ever since she recognized he was different. That had only taken one look at him though. They were 5 when she first saw him. She had been walking with her father when the atmosphere seemed to change from one of warmth that the village always seemed to give the Hyuugas to one of anger and hatred. She had been able to feel and see it. Then she noticed a boy her age walking down the street. He was dirty and he looked like he had been fighting the day before. She hadn't known that a drunk man had been beating him only 10 minutes before and that his wounds were already healing. The villagers all seemed to look at him with eyes of anger. She didn't really recognize it as specific to him at that age though. She had only gotten a passing look at him. But she did find it odd that people were avoiding him and that he apparently had no one there with him.

Hinata had always watched him closely after that. He always seemed to have a determination. Even when the villagers tried everything they could to destroy his will, to break his spirit. Naruto worked harder than anyone recognized, even herself. It took a long time for her to see something real that no one else saw. Naruto was smiling almost always. He laughed, he pulled pranks, and he did fun things when he wasn't training to be the strongest ninja he could. She saw into his eyes. His eyes held pain. Not pain of a scrape of a cut. It was pain of loneliness; pain of always being scorned and turned away. She understood some of that pain. But most of all she admired that strength he had, to never let it get to him. Now she saw a defeated Naruto. One that had lost that heart.

Shikamaru knew he wasn't going to be able to do anything. Naruto had too much of a serious look in his eyes. He had never seen Naruto like this before but he also knew not to try and ask him about it. He answered Naruto's question calmly even though he was worried about Naruto's abilities if he stayed like that. "Naruto, you will take the lead followed closely by Sakura and I. If something happens I will be right behind you and able to give you orders. Sakura will be on the left and I'll be on the right. Her physical strength will be best served on the left, the side most teams are weak on. Naruto you will be behind us and Hinata will be directly behind you. Her Byakugan can make sure our flank is being watched."

Shikamaru drew out the formation on the ground. Naruto, Sakura, and Shikamaru formed a diamond with Naruto in the front and back while Shikamaru and Sakura were level with each other on the sides. Hinata was in the back very close behind the second Naruto. No one questioned how there would be two Naruto's because they all knew that Naruto could hold his shadow clones indefinitely when they weren't hit dirrectly.

Shikamaru had chosen this formation because they were going to be going into unknown territory and needed to make sure they were watching out for enemy ninja. While the Fire country was their own, non of the team had seen all of it yet. Naruto needed to be in the front and back to be able to help out with his shadow clones quickly in case of multiple enemies. Hinata needed to be close behind so that if an attack came from the rear it would be easy for her to get inside the protective circle Naruto and the others would create. Shikamaru needed to be right behind the lead Naruto to give quick orders if need be. But he didn't have the ability to do that job and cover both sides at once. Sakura had the greatest strength and so she could cover the left side easily. Sakura and Hinata also needed to be separated relatively well in case of an attack. They couldn't be together because if they were attacked the group would be out of medical ninja.

After Shikamaru had looked up from his drawing to make sure everyone understood, he stood up and turned to face the forest just outside the gates. Naruto stepped in front and walked calmly out of the gates. Sakura and Shikamaru hadn't noticed the second Naruto until he asked if they were going to go. When had Naruto gotten so fast and stealthy? They couldn't tell when he had made the clone. And now they didn't know which one was the real one. The two ninja silently walked out and followed as the orange ninja jumped into the trees to start the long trip to where their mission would start.

Hinata wasn't as surprised as the other two members of the team when the second Naruto asked them to move because she had been in the back and saw him make the clone. What surprised her most was the ease he did it. It almost seemed like he didn't even have to mold chakra to do it, like he already had the chakra set to do the technique. She didn't even see him make any seals to do it. She was only distracted for a second by this though because she followed after the group without much delay.

Their first destination was a city next to the Fire country boarder. Their path would take them past the capital. They would be safe in their travels for a while. The group didn't concentrate too much on silence but they did make sure to cover their tracks until they got a few miles from Konoha. It was a hidden village after all and they didn't want enemies to find it too easily. As it was, Sakura had no problem softly voicing her question to Shikamaru.

"Which one do you think is the real Naruto?" The question had been on both of their minds. There was no way to tell which blond was the real Naruto without hitting one and seeing if it puffed out of existence. Even Neji had been fooled during the Chuunin exam 3 years ago. Hinata's Byakugan would not be able to tell either. The question would either have to be posed to Naruto himself or they would have to just continue on without knowing.

Shikamaru regarded the back of the orange jacket in front of him. He debated whether he should actually ask or just leave it alone. This debate was answered from behind him. He and Sakura had not checked to see how close the Naruto behind them was.

"There is only one way to tell a shadow clone from the real one without directly striking one. A shadow clone's body starts out at the temperature of the air around it. It will eventually warm up to body temperature because of the chakra circulatory system created inside it, but at the start it is room temperature." Naruto let his explanation sink in as he slowed down to get back in the proper position. The group fell into an almost uncomfortable silence for the rest of the trip. No one seemed to want to talk much. Hinata was still thinking about what had happened earlier, especially how she had seen a defeated Naruto. Sakura and Shikamaru didn't want to say anything they shouldn't with a Naruto on both sides and it didn't look like either Naruto wanted to talk.

The silence was finally broken about an hour after sundown. Naruto had kept the pace the same as during the day. He had no trouble seeing at night apparently. The rest of the group minus Hinata had been having a hard time seeing to keep the pace though. Hinata's Byakugan helped her avoid any problems other than a few random snags of her clothing as she went. Shikamaru finally called that they should find a place to rest for the night. They wouldn't get there tonight anyway.

Within moments the faint orange spot he could see in front of him seemed to just fall out of view. Shikamaru, Sakura, Naruto, and Hinata followed the point man down into a small clearing. It was only about 15 feet in diameter and was almost completely closed off by bushes and tree trunks for about 8 feet. It was almost the perfect spot to rest in. Shikamaru wondered how Naruto had found it so easily and quickly, but then remembered that Naruto had been traveling around for the last three years and probably knew the Fire country a lot better than he did.

The watch was quickly decided and set before Shikamaru, Sakura, and Naruto went to sleep. Hinata would get the first watch, then Naruto, Sakura, and Shikamaru would go last. Shikamaru always liked getting the last shift of the night, he preferred watching the sun rise. His last thoughts before going to sleep though was how the team didn't seem to be as comfortable with each other as he had hoped.

Naruto woke up to a blushing Hinata shaking his shoulder. Naruto found that cute about the girl. She had spent so much time around him and they were almost always together when not on missions. She was still shy, especially when it came to waking him. She was always embarrassed when he woke up and saw her looking at him, even if it was innocently and on a mission. "Time for my shift already huh?"

Hinata answered his whispered question with a silent nod. Then she watched as the blond sat up. He had slept on the ground with only his orange jacket thrown over his shoulder as a blanket. It was not a cold night, but it could get chilly later. She slightly shivered at the thought of being out in such thin clothes. Her jacket was heavier than what most others preferred to wear. But then again she got colder easier than most and she had always preferred to dress modestly, something Naruto very much preferred since his return from his 'perverted tour of the world' as he called it. He hadn't liked the places Jiraiya had taken him during his training.

Naruto noticed Hinata was reluctant to lay down. He had jumped up into a good position to spend his watch when he saw the midnight blue haired girl looking up at him from where she had woken him up. She hadn't moved. It was common to sleep in the same spot as the ninja one just woke up to replace them, but Naruto had gotten to know the 'dark and weird' girl much better than that. She wasn't lying down, she was concerned about something. To answer her confusion Naruto shifted over on his branch allowing enough room for her to come up to his scouting position if she wanted. It was a silent invitation and offer that Hinata wasted only a little time on embarrassment before accepting.

Hinata quietly crouched on the branch next to the fox-like boy. He was not looking at her, but she knew his attention was only barely going into the surroundings. The rest of the boy's chaotic mind was focused at her. She felt safe with him. She was only slightly worried how he would take her question. "Uhm, N-Naruto…Why did you lie to Sakura and Shikamaru?"

She saw as a shock easily plastered its expression across his face. The boy had always been the worst and the best at hiding emotions Hinata had ever seen. His emotions had always been easily readable on his face, something the academy teachers continually reprimanded him for. 'A ninja should be able to hid his emotions perfectly.' What no one realized, and neither did Hinata until recently, was that he was always hiding his pain and sadness. His smile was perfect for hiding his pain. No one saw the real emotion Naruto was feeling. Hinata knew better now. Since Naruto's last birthday Hinata had known Naruto's secret and had seen his real pain. Once she had learned to read his lie and see his pain, it was very, very easy to see through his other lies.

Naruto knew exactly what Hinata was referring to, the explanation on how to tell the real Naruto from a shadow clone. "I didn't lie Hinata."

Naruto was about to continue when he saw Hinata getting ready to speak. She always took a little bit to talk, but he knew what to look for. Hinata's reply was soft as if she didn't like telling him he was wrong. "You're clones don't start at the temperature of the air around them. I've felt them almost directly after you made them, they are as warm as I was. You used them to help keep me warm during the winter when we were on the Hokage monument. It was right after you gave me this necklace."

Naruto's eyes finally came to rest on the girl he was talking to. He allowed himself to stop watching the forest for attacks to look at the girl who had caught him. His eyes dropped to his birthday gift to her. It was small, but it fit the small girl and matched her eyes perfectly. He started to feel ashamed at his semi truth. "Well, actually I didn't lie, they do start as the temperature of the air around them Hinata-chan. The chakra system running through them warms them up. This normally takes a little bit for normal clones. I have the Kyuubi's chakra running through me just as my own. The Kyuubi's element is fire, like Shukaku's is wind and sand. This means the clones get warmed up by chakra with characteristics like those of fire. The result is they warm up to body temp much faster than a normal shadow clone."

That was the full truth, but apparently Hinata was not satisfied. She looked hard at the blond. His head had turned back to the forest and his duties as he said his last statement. "You are still holding back Naruto, is there something else I should know?"

Naruto got a little sheepish at this. He didn't look at Hinata but she didn't think that was because of his duty. He seemed more to want to avoid looking her in the eye rather than take care of his responsibility.

"Creating shadow clones is dangerous Hinata-chan. In fact what I just said is the reason why the technique is not taught and is restricted. For most users the temperature test is the only real way for someone to tell which is which, without hitting the clone. That includes the user of the technique. The person is perfectly copied to include their whole mind and feelings. Every clone thinks of itself as the real person and there have often been times when the clone thought it was the real one and tried to kill the actual person. This is the reason the technique is not widely used."

Naruto paused to let the information sink in. What he had just told Hinata was that there was no way for anyone to tell which Naruto was the real one and which was a clone. That included Naruto. So the shadow clones could impersonate Naruto thinking they were him, or even try and hurt the blue eyed boy. She looked into the boy's eyes as he turned to scan the forest. She was trying to find some kind of emotion other than the happy sadness he always exuded. What she saw was something she had only seen once before. She saw his eyes, they didn't look the same. The color seemed off, but it was dark so it might just be the light. The really odd part was his pupils. They were slits. His eyes were slits, he was using the Kyuubi's chakra to improve his night vision. Hinata had no idea he could control it that well.

Naruto sensed Hinata had digested the information he told her and finished his explanation. "Each clone has a slight mental link to each other, it conveys things more like feelings rather than thoughts. That is how we are able to coordinate attacks without talking. But there is one thing that is different about me than my clones. I am the only one who can claim any difference from his clones." Naruto didn't feel the need to continue.

Hinata knew exactly what that difference was and she wasn't about to make the boy talk about it. Especially since his apartment had been torn apart earlier that day because of that reason. Hinata thanked Naruto for explaining how the technique worked. She then silently dropped down back into the clearing with Shikamaru and Sakura.

Naruto watched as the shy girl prepared for sleep. She ended up sleeping in the spot he had been occupying only a few minutes before. He watched as she did pretty much the same thing as he did whith his arm and jacket, except she laid a mat on the ground for insulation in that direction too. Naruto then cringed as the soft spoken girl shivered slightly as she slept. Even her involuntary actions were soft.

The next morning Hinata woke to find her legs, which couldn't be covered by her coat, were oddly warm. She looked down to see a bright orange jacket on her legs.


	3. The Client

Chapter 3

The Client

Shikamaru had decided to allow Hinata to sleep in the longest since she had been using her chakra for her Byakugan the entire trip and would need it almost constantly until the mission was completed. He had no doubt they would all need their rest for this one, but they had to reach their destination early because of the Lord's son's trip to the capital. Naruto and Sakura got up without much of a fuss. Well, much of one for Naruto. Naruto had apparently been able to sleep, to spite the cold of the night, without a jacket. Shikamaru had wondered how he had done that, especially since it had gotten much colder than most could stand without a blanket let alone sleeping in the open air with only a short sleeve protective shirt. The protective shirts were designed to help stop attacks from other ninja, not keep in warmth.

Naruto was the one to actually wake the sleeping heiress. His loud antics and argument with Sakura were what woke the sleeping girl, not the approach of the team leader. She had been offered dry food for breakfast and ate it fast. The camp was already to leave. Only Hinata's stuff remained to be gotten ready. Her bed pad needed to be rolled and the grass refluffed but that only took a few seconds. While Hinata was putting her bed pad into her pack she noticed there were already two Narutos taking care of the flattened grass where she had slept. They were both only wearing the protective undershirt almost every ninja wore. She quickly looked around and noticed there was only the two discarded jackets. Her coat and his visual statement were sitting by her pack.

The chore was quickly done and the Narutos moved to where Shikamaru was standing with Sakura. Hinata put on her coat and offered the orange and black jacket back to the twins. She didn't know which was the real one, but she was certain the real one would take the coat. The first Naruto took it and put it on after thanking Hinata.

Shikamaru asked if everyone was ready and then nodded to the identical people standing next to Hinata. The Naruto without the jacket took point while the one with the jacket took the position behind Sakrua and Shikamaru. The pace Naruto set was just as quick as the day before. But they needed to get there.

The group arrived at the city and entered without being noticed, to spite the presence of two genin dressed in bright orange. It was a regular city and not guarded against the entrance of ninja, especially since it was in the country of Fire, protected by Konoha. There were guards on the walls, but the city walls were more for regular military attacks, not attacks by those who have mastered stealth. Naruto was the lowest ranking member of the team, and he was dressed in a color normally associated with wanting to be seen, he was still one of the advantages the team had, whether or not the team leader realized it.

The Naruto without the jacket stayed in the lead all the way to the gate of Lord Nami's estate. No one questioned how Naruto knew exactly where to go. The guards at the gate however were very suspicious of five young ninja standing in front of them expecting entrance.

The team had stopped on a roof across the street from the Lord's estate. The three chuunin were slightly out of breath from the pace Naruto had set all morning. Naruto had decided to give them a rest so they didn't look bad for their first impression. Shikamaru signaled for Naruto to stop at the gate and be let in rather than just showing up rudely in the Lord's court. It was best since it was their client and it would show their respect. Naruto simply huffed and then dropped from the roofs to land silently right in front of the gate guards.

Shikamaru walked up to the guards and announced their identity and purpose. The guards looked suspiciously at the ninja calmly standing before them. Both guards had spears within reach and had swords at their sides. They were both twice the size of the kids standing before them but they showed no fear at all. One of the guards signaled for the other to enter and see if the ninja's request was valid and should be allowed entrance.

It was going to take a while for the guard to get back with permission. Shikamaru had no choice but to wait, and so did his team. He looked back at the other three being represented by four ninja and sighed. They all knew what it meant and watched as the lazy leader moved to the side and laid down to watch the clouds. Sakura moved to sit next to him and opened up a couple of scrolls and started reading and taking notes. Hinata was hesitant. She wanted to be next to Naruto, but it was wrong on a mission. It was best to keep relationships from being seen while outside of the village. She decided to sit on the other side of Shikamaru from Sakura and practice her Byakugan by reading Sakura's scroll and watch Naruto. As Hinata moved next to their teammates, the two Narutos walked to the middle of the street. They were about 10 feet apart and facing each other. Apparently they had silently agreed to spar while waiting.

The guard was very, very shocked. He knew how to tell the difference between genin and chuunin. The three chuunin seemed to not have a single care. They all seemed to have dropped their guard completely. The two genin however, and he could only assume they were twins, were getting ready to fight. They all seemed to have no real care for their safety. He could kill all of them before one of them would know what was going on. Then he was totally and utterly surprised as the two genin facing each other calmly in the middle of the street simply disappeared. They were standing their, flatfooted and in no position to move when they both just vanished. The three chuunin next to him didn't even seem to notice. Though the white eyed girl sitting closest to him seemed to be looking around very fast.

Suddenlty the guard saw the one with the coat standing in front of him while the other was throwing a punch at the mess of blond hair. The punch was easily deflected. The guard was right in the line of the fist coming at his head. He ducked and moved to avoid the punch but it was futile, it was coming in much faster than he had thought the boy could move. Suddenly the punch was hauled back and the boy moved off chasing the orange blur. In his panic to move he knocked over his spear. It started to fall. Right about when it was going to hit the blue haired girl the boy without the coat grabbed it.

In one fluid motion the boy grabbed the spear, turned around and stabbed the spear into the chest of his brother. How could he do that? It was his brother and he just killed him like it was a game or nothing. The guard was a little relieved when the girl sitting next to him gasped and brought her hand to her mouth. This caused the pink one to look up and wince.

The spear was sticking a foot out from the boy with the coat. Suddenly the boy disappeared in a cloud of smoke and left only the coat dangling at the end of the spear. Naruto started to get excited and yell that he got his coat back. The guard now understood it. No one would dare attack these ninja, they would kill their own brother just for a coat. He was now very cautious when the light hearted blond handed him back the spear. The boy was putting on the coat he had just killed for when the pink haired girl asked him a question.

"Did you really have to do all that just to get your coat back from your clone?" The blond haired boy became sheepish at this question and put his hand behind his head scratching it.

Naruto laughed softly in slight embarrassment. "Well we both wanted to have some fun. And I was bored. Besides it was better than just releasing the clone. Besides no damage happened."

This angered Sakura. Her inner self suddenly surfaced and introduced Naruto's face to the dirt with a powerful suggestion in the form of a fist to the back of the genin's head. "No damage, you frightened that guard to the point of wetting his pants, you worried Hinata, and you put a hole in your jacket, which is only a few weeks old."

The guard was even more shocked at this. The girl who seemed to be more of a brainiac than one focused on physical strength just put a small hole in the ground with her teammate's head. She probably just killed him. But the guard was even more shocked when the boy lifted his head as if nothing had happened and just smiled and pleaded with her to calm down.

After that little altercation nothing significant happened. The energetic boy had reached into his pack and got out a couple of cups of instant ramen. He poured water into each and asked who wanted some lunch. Only the white eyed girl replied at all. It seemed like the hyperactive blond had expected this as there were only two cups of ramen pulled out. The boy then held the cup of ramen in his and and after a few minutes he handed it to the female who was joining him in eating. Oddly the cup was now steaming and giving a pleasant odor of chicken. The boy then held the second cup in the same way and a few minutes later downed the whole thing faster than the guard could see.

Of the four remaining ninja the girl who was eating seemed to be the one with the most manners. She seemed to hold herself like the guard had seen a noble do. But the guard also noticed that the girl seemed to be shy and subdued. It was almost like she wanted to be quiet and unnoticed in plain sight than to be recognized for her obvious birth right. The boy she seemed closer to than her teammates though seemed to have no manners what so ever, like he was raised on the streets and didn't have parents that had taught him how to act at all. He was loud, obnoxious, and dressed like he wanted to be seen.

The guard wondered how this group could work together at all. The leader seemed lazy and only interested in not working, the pink haired one seemed more interested in studying scrolls than anything else but was also the physically strongest person the guard had ever seen, to include both genders. The other two seemed to be almost exact opposites of each other. The group seemed to have nothing even remotely in common except for the metal plates with the leaf symbol they all seemed to be wearing.

After Hinata had finished eating the other guard returned with news that the five ninja were to go directly to Lord Nami. He then got a little confused as there was only four ninja present at the gate. He looked at the other guard who apparently was his superior and saw that he should let the idea drop.

Shikamaru got up and lead his team inside. They all seemed to be relaxed as they entered the courtyard before walking up to the front door of the mansion and entering. The entrance hall was huge by comparison. Even Hinata hadn't been in one that had been so large and lavishly decorated, but then again he was one of the provincial heads of Fire country. The group walked down the all and waited to be allowed to enter the court of Lord Nami.

They only had to wait a few minutes before they were allowed to enter. Just before they were allowed to enter an older man obviously a noble from the way he dressed walked out of the door leading to the hall. Behind him was a cloud ninja. Naruto looked the ninja directly in the eyes, not hiding any of his feelings towards the guy. It seemed like it was more than just village rivalry to the rest of Naruto's group though. Shikamaru, Sakura, and Hinata didn't focus on the ninja for more than the required time to memorize his appearance and assess the threat. Instead they turned to the guard that announced their ability to enter. Naruto was the only one to notice because of the timing of the attack but a shuriken had been thrown at him by the cloud ninja as he passed.

Naruto had caught it and thrown it back only for the other ninja to catch before anyone else noticed. Now was not the time to settle the score. But this meant Naruto would have to be more cautious on this trip than he had in a while.

Shikamaru walked in to the hall and presented his team to their client. The lord regarded the team with a critical eye. He seemed to spend a few seconds considering the appearance and strength of each team ninja. "My guard told me there were five of you, I only see four. Where is the other blond, the twin he stated?"

Shikamaru answered this without hesitation. "Ninja have the ability to create illusions. It only looked like there were five of us to your guard. We created the illusion to ward of anyone who might think only two young men were a meager protection for two young girls while traveling through the forest."

Naruto was happy about that answer. It used the well known idea that ninja can create illusions to hide what had really been happening. The noble man seemed to accept the answer. The next statement Naruto heard was insulting. He didn't mind it for him, but it insulted his teammates. Especially Sakura's and Hinata's strength. The voice seemed like it came from the man sitting in the raised chair but it seemed like he was a little surprised at it too.

"You don't really think these weaklings can protect me from the cloud do you? They have two girls with them and one of them is only a genin."

The boy who appeared as the last statement was being said was apparently the Nami Shiro whom they were to protect. Naruto cringed as the vein in Sakura's head made itself known. She had just been insulted along with Hinata. Hinata seemed to accept the insult though which made Naruto and Sakura even angrier at the comment.

"Please forgive my son. He can be a little blunt. I had been promised a strong 4 MAN CHUUNIN team to protect my son. It appears I was a little misunderstood in my request."

Sakura almost flipped at this blatant sexism. Surprisingly Hinata beat Shikamaru in replying to the lord and his son. Shikamaru took the hint though and moved to calm Sakura down.

"Lord Nami-sama, I am Hyuuga Hinata, heir of the Hyuuga clan. I assure you the Hokage has sent a team more than capable of protecting your son. Sakura is the apprentice to the Hokage herself and as you know the Hyuuga have their own strengths. Naruto is no ordinary genin, he is the apprentice to one of the Sannin, Jiraiya. He has simply been unable to take the chuunin exam because of a lack of genin team members."

The reply was worded very well. She had obviously had some training in the art of diplomacy. She neither said that the Hokage had misunderstood the request nor said it was a mistake. She didn't even address the obvious insult but more proved how each member was worthy of being assigned to the protection mission. What impressed Sakura was that Hinata had noticed an insult to Naruto was well. Sakura hadn't noticed the insult at Naruto's rank.

Nami Shiro simply huffed in response to this statement. He obviously didn't believe the females could protect him or stand up in a fight. He wondered how these ninja could even consider themselves so good. They were standing and not kneeling like they should have been. They should be subservient like the peasants they were. Why was his father tolerating this disrespect?

"We will be leaving in an hour. I will be traveling by carriage. You will not be allowed inside. You must find your own way to keep up with our pace. Be at the stables ready to go. If I am dissatisfied with the service your payment will be reduced." Obviously the son considered them as only mercenaries with no loyalties or honor. He thought of himself as better than them because of his birth.

This time it was Naruto who answered. "We won't need any transportation. We can move much faster than your carriage can without help. And I don't think any one of us wants to be in your carriage, we will need to be outside protecting you and looking out for threats. Let alone the company would be undesirable."

Sakura was pleased with Naruto's answer. It had thinly veiled insult in it and it demonstrated that they didn't need help. They were more than enough for this mission. Shiro seemed to be fuming at this as he turned and left obviously angry at the contempt the ninja showed towards him. Shikamaru suddenly felt the need to apologize to the lord for his team's disrespect.

"Lord Nami-sama, please forgive my team. They can be a little heated when they feel their abilities are being questioned. With your leave we will now prepare for the mission."

Shikamaru's statement was acknowledged with a nod signaling they were dismissed.


	4. Mission Begins

Chapter 4

The Mission Begins

Shiro was pleased. There was only five minutes to go until his entourage was going to leave and the four ninja weren't even there. He would be able to deny their leader payment because they were late and still demand full service. Their leader wouldn't be able to do anything about it either. Who was this peasant to question his honor when a ninja had none of his own anyway? The principle of ninja tactics was to use stealth and deception to trick their opponent. They didn't face each other face to face like a samurai would in open combat; they preferred a surprise attack in a dark alley. Shiro had no idea that he was being watched by Sakura and Shikamaru.

They were only 20 feet away, calmly crouching on the wall separating the stable area from the rest of the city. With a nod to Sakura Shikamaru jumped off and disappeared. Only a trained ninja would be able to track his movements let alone spot him, but that was the idea. They were hired to be out of sight and take care of other ninja problems, not be seen. Sakura on the other hand dropped down to inform Shiro that they were done scouting the first couple of miles of the journey. They were ready to leave when he was.

Sakura quietly walked up behind Shiro, well quietly for a normal person, for a ninja it was second nature to be silent when simply moving around. She got a small thread of satisfaction as the arrogant boy nearly jumped at her soft voice. He was obviously a few years older than the ninja, but he didn't appear to be any more mature than Konohamaru was. "Nami-sama, we have completed our survey of the first portion of the journey. We are ready to leave when you are."

Sakura was satisfied at his slight surprise that they were not only on time, but they had been working this past hour. Then she got a little angry at his next statement.

"You're late. We've been waiting for you for 10 minutes now."

Sakura almost introduced her fist to the back of the liar's skull by sending it through his face. That would be a good punishment for this arrogant prick. He obviously thought of himself as a 'good looker' by the way he dressed. He obviously thought of himself as better and above anyone he was talking to by the conceited tone of voice he used and posture he took. "I would suggest you don't try and cheat us; we've had you under surveillance since we met." Sakura paused for a second so that information to sink in. "You only got here three minutes ago. We've also been watching the stables for the last thirty minutes. Your stable hands got here twenty minutes ago, they still haven't finished loading all of the provisions, and we are not scheduled to leave for a few more minutes. Lying to us doesn't increase your hold over us."

Sakura was satisfied at the look of anger and shock on the young lord's face. She was about to turn and move into position for the journey when she heard him yell. It was to his servant and guards.

"Guards, arrest this wench at once. She just insulted me and my honor!"

The guards dutifully came running. One had a spear leveled at Sakura and the other looked to be drawing a sword. Sakura saw the smug look on Shiro's face as the guards, who were both more than twice her size moved towards her. Shiro's servant immediately appeared by his side. Sakura wasted little time listening to Shiro bark orders to his servant about how Sakura was to be (mis)treated once she was 'put in her place'. The servant merely replied, in the demoralized, "Yes sir" of a servant, signifying his understanding and willingness to comply. Unfortunately for them Sakura had no intention of being 'put in her place'.

The guards slowed to a walk and eventually stopped putting Sakura within striking distance of their weapons. They wanted to arrest her, not kill her, but for a ninja capture was worse than death. Sakura wasn't about to submit to this jerk. He was worse than Neji had been before the first chuunin exam she participated in. She then made her move, it was faster than the guards could deal with, or maybe it was that they didn't expect her to be stronger than both of them combined. Whether it was the speed, strength, or both the out come was the same.

From Shiro's point of view, he saw his guards just about to arrest the pink haired girl when he turned to the servant that didn't even deserve to be near him. He gave an order to only give her the necessities when he heard a thud and a guttural sound of pain. The groan was a deeper male tone and not that of a higher pitched female voice like it should have been. He looked back at the unworthy ninja and saw her standing over the two guards. One had landed face first on the ground, obviously unconscious, while she had the other guard's own sword leveled across his throat. She looked…pissed.

"Keep your little dogs to yourself! You should know better than to try something like this to a kunoichi. You don't deserve anything because of your father's political stature. You are our client. That is all you are. Don't think we fall under your rules. You don't have any power over us. Now get ready to leave."

The young lord fumed. No one had ever treated him like that before; he was infuriated, this pink loving girl, a peasant not even worthy to be in his presence, had insulted him by calling him a liar. It didn't occur to him that she had been right about him lying through his teeth. He was 'justified' though. They had no honor so why should he, a 'higher lord', show them any respect or honor?

Shikamaru nearly laughed when he saw the altercation and the arrogant lord's reaction. Shikamaru had decided it was best to send Sakura to confront the little punk. Hinata would have been too shy to do what was necessary. The boy couldn't get his way the whole time or he would become even more troublesome. This province would become a tiny third world country once he took rule, not to mention making the mission much harder to accomplish. That brought something to mind though.

He had been discussing the mission and Tsunade's decision to send them on this mission rather than her previously selected team with Sakura. It seemed Tsunade didn't believe the story about the Cloud trying to kill Shiro. Not to mention they had seen a Cloud ninja openly walking beside a lord from the Cloud country in Lord Nami's home. There was something more to this mission than the official reason they were given. Shikamaru didn't think that Cloud assassins were going to be the real threat. This was not a simple protection mission anymore. Every move had to be considered. Something had been increasing the tension the last couple of weeks between Konoha and the other shinobi villages. Shikamaru thought Orochimaru was somehow behind it though. The Leaf had been noticing an increasing number of encounters with Sound shinobi in the last few months. What made matters worse was that the Sound seemed to be moving freely through the countries surrounding the country under Konoha's protection, the Fire country. It all seemed to be becoming more than Konoha could allow.

Shikamaru watched as Sakura took her position. The team was well spread out to cover an attack from almost any angle. They were in a staggered box formation. Naruto was on the left side of the road and in the front of the caravan. Shikamaru was the front right side, but he was behind Naruto. Shikamaru's position was about ten yards behind the leading servants while Naruto was about ten yards in front. Sakura was on Naruto's side but she was placed more towards the rear. Hinata was on Shikamaru's side making sure the rear of the caravan was protected by placing herself the standard distance to the rear of the caravan. This meant that she was about ten yards behind the last couple of servants traveling with Nami Shiro. Each of the four man team was about five yards off to either side. This made sure their positions were not easily spotted while they could still see clearly enough to give proper cover.

They were well placed to defend against an attack that came from either side. Shikamaru was in the best place to drop down and give orders to the leader of the caravan. Sakura and Naruto worked best together since they had been on the same team the longest. Naruto could hold the front for long enough with his shadow clones giving time for Sakura move into position to provide back up, and for Shikamaru to give the servants orders. Hinata was the best suited for guarding the rear with her Byakugan. If attacked from behind; Sakura could drop back to help Hinata quickly. The girls could hold their own in any fight Shikamaru could think of. The pink haired girl possessed strength no male could match normally and Hinata had her own advantages because of her fighting style, eyes, and natural agility. Not to mention Naruto was the fastest of the group. If given a fair chance, he could probably get to Hinata before Sakura could.

They were positioned well for an attack or an ambush by lowly highway robbers. This was only a B rank mission and thus only normal thugs were expected. There was the possibility for a low level ninja on this mission but that wasn't likely, not with such an important event for both Fire and Cloud. This marriage was going to keep hostilities at a minimum between the two large countries. No one wanted an all out war between the two, but tensions were still high. The mission's rank could also easily increase. A ninja always had to be ready for the unexpected. Misinformation and lack of information always played into what rank a mission got, and those seemingly small ideas could cost the success of the mission and the lives of the entire team.

The problem was that any ninja with any real skill could easily see the weak spots and there was only one way to guard those, but Shikamaru didn't want to make Naruto make another clone to defend the weak spots of the front right and back left. He would just have to be more careful in guarding his assigned area and have Sakura be more cautious. But in reality it was Naruto and Hinata that had the greatest responsibilities. They were guarding the entire front and back as well as the sides they were on while he and Sakura were merely guarding only part of each side and only slightly looking out for the front and back corners they were stationed at. Though Shikamaru had to be honest, the person with the least defense and possibility for back up was Sakura. Hinata was too far away to properly watch her back if an attack came from that specific corner. No one was back there to cover that area. Sakura was going to be alone for a little bit if any real threat showed itself.

The group was in no real danger of being attacked, especially while inside the city, but Shikamaru made sure they were all in place as they left the Nami estate. He wouldn't put it past Shiro to try and hire someone to attack him just so he could claim the ninja failed. The caravan moved quickly through the city, it was familiar territory to the servants of Lord Nami so they could take the easiest and fastest routes without problem. Their pace was slowed because it took a little bit of time for the group to get through the gates of the city. This was only because the doors had to be opened for them, but once they were outside the city nothing held back their pace. Everyone, except for Shikamaru's team, was either in a horse drawn wagon with Shiro's supplies or operating the carriage Shiro was in. As such they could move much faster than someone on foot.

Apparently Shiro had given orders to try and outrun the ninja once they were outside the city. As the carts and carriage picked up the pace Shikamaru merely mumbled his lazy trademark, "How troublesome," before picking up the pace himself. There was no reason to give orders to Sakura and Hinata, their job was simpler now. It was harder to attack from behind if the target was moving fast, but Naruto's responsibility just got harder. Protecting the front would become too difficult for him no matter how fast he really was. Shikamaru had no real knowledge of it, but he suspected that Naruto's spead jutsu was only useable over short periods of time, but that could be only because it wasn't necessary to use it for longer.

Shikamaru quickly moved to where Naruto's position should have been. He wasn't there. Odd, he knew Naruto would probably move forward at the increase of speed but he was no where in sight. Suddenly two Narutos appeared. One coming from the front, and one coming from the side. The front one looked at Shikamaru and told him to tell the caravan to slow down before disappearing using the speed jutsu Naruto used almost all the time. Shikamaru could only guess it was the same one that the fourth had used to gain the title of the yellow flash. Naruto only looked like a orange blurry streak when he used it. The Naruto that came from the side reported no threats from that direction.

Shikamaru was able to figure out what Naruto had done. When the speed increased beyond the expected speed Naruto had created a shadow clone to check the side while he went ahead to scout the areas outside of their preliminary scouting trip. They had only scouted a few miles in their hour but at this pace they would cover those quickly. Naruto had then sent a shadow clone back to inform Shikamaru. Shikamaru trusted Naruto's opinion about slowing down. It was cautious, but also a little reckless. Naruto was obviously trying to take care of the problem himself. That could easily put him in danger and thus the rest of the team by depriving them of information and possibly a team member.

Leaving the clone to the station it was assigned Shikamaru fell back to his position and then moved to address the head servant, the one in charge of the caravan. "You must slow down. There is danger ahead. We are taking care of it, but you need to slow down so Nami Shiro isn't put in more danger than necessary."

The servant, accustomed to taking orders immediately slowed down to a normal pace, one the horses could hold all day rather than in just short sprints like they had been doing. The horses had needed a rest anyway.

Shikamaru noticed the voice of Shiro almost immediately after they slowed down. He seemed angry, like he was being deprived the chance to get back at the ninja. Shikamaru looked at where Sakura and Hinata were stationed. He found them easily enough, but it helped that he knew exactly where they were supposed to be. He noticed the slight fatigue and heavy breathing. They hadn't had a lot of time to rest from Naruto's pace earlier that day. Naruto had set a pace about twice as fast as this, but they had just gotten back from a mission before setting out again so they had a right to be a little tired. Shikamaru looked at each and silently communicated what was going on. Each of the two female ninja understood. There was danger ahead, Naruto had found it and was taking care of it. Both of them showed concern, even though only a ninja would have been able to see it in their faces.

Naruto loved to fight and often disregarded tactics or strategy in any fight. But they trusted Shikamaru to be the leader and if back up was necessary he would send it. As it was it was only necessary to slow down, or at least that was the information Shikamaru received.

Shiro could be seen, and heard, hanging out the door of his lavish carriage yelling at his subordinate and the head of the guards who had come on the trip. When Shiro's tirade wound down the servant simply stated that the ninja leader had advised it and then pointed at Shikamaru. This information seemed to bring some joy to the arrogant lord. He smirked as he called out at Shikamaru.

"Unable to keep up?" There was no attempt hiding the smugness in his voice. The arrogant bastard thought he was going to be able to claim bad service again.

"Actually, our scout, who is ahead of us has reported danger. He requested for you to slow down so you would stay safe while he took care of it." Shikamaru didn't feel like going through the trouble of dealing with the future lord or picking a fight with him that would only escalate later. Sakura didn't seem to feel the same way he did though.

From her hidden position she called out. "You might also want to know that the scout is the genin on our team. And the two weak _females_ are guarding your flanks." Sakura took pride in the slight anger and shock easily read by any ninja on the haughty boy's face. She knew he couldn't see her, her position was too well concealed. That didn't stop her from enjoying watching his futile search for her location.

"Fine, we will stay at this pace until your subordinate reports back. But I expect to be back at our original pace once the danger has passed."

Shikamaru simply nodded his acknowledgement. Then he looked at Sakura and Hinata, a silent order to change their positions in order to protect the caravan better with only three reliable ninja. Hinata would move to a more central position in the rear, Sakura would move up to just in front of the middle on her side while Shikamaru would be in line with her on the opposite side. The clone Naruto was still guarding the front, but since he was a clone he could be dispatched much easier than a real ninja. Almost on cue the clone disappeared into its trademark puff of smoke.

Shikamaru made sure to keep the caravan moving, but at a slower, more easily defensible pace. There were a few minutes of nothing going on except the easily ignored protests by Nami Shiro and their 'painfully slow' pace. Shikamaru then caught sight the orange color associated with distress moving quickly back to them.

_Flashback to about one hour ago._

Naruto watched as the small caravan finished moving through the gates and then pick up speed. He was a little surprised at the speed they finally settled at, but it was nothing he couldn't handle himself. He was the lead and in charge of making sure there were no attacks from the front. It had been agreed that he create a clone to protect the front while he would scout ahead every time they came to the end of the area they had already scouted. But now the pace was about twice what they expected. It was a pace the horses wouldn't be able to hold for longer than an hour or so, but they would still cover the scouted distance in half the time they expected. Naruto decided to move forward, farther than his original position so he could provide better coverage as point at the new speed.

When they reached the area where he and Hinata had stopped their preliminary search he created a shadow clone and told it to scout the immediate left then come back and watch the position he was supposed to guard. He then quickly advanced in front of the caravan and searched for any bandits or enemy ninja waiting. It was about thirty minutes later that he found a threat. They were only a few bandits. Nothing major…or so Naruto thought.

Naruto quickly observed their positions and their probable attack pattern. They looked to be taking the ambush style of robbing and killing rather than the "mercy style" of let your presence be known and kill anyone who tries and fights back. Naruto's plan was just like him. It was loud, simple, full of energy, and lacking all common sense and actual thought.

Naurto back tracked to just around the last curve in the road and then created a set of shadow clones. There were now 7 shadow clones standing by his side in the middle of the road. He had moved to the road just after rounding the turn making sure he was out of sight of the bandits. He had previously been in the trees which helped him keep himself hidden. His 'plan' called for there to be enough people to risk the bandits to attack. One he sent back to Shikamaru, one he transformed into Nami Shiro, 4 he turned into the different guards that had come on the trip, one he turned into Sakura, and he stayed himself.

He then started walking. The Sakura clone took the front, she was flanked by two of the guards. The four guards created a box around the noble looking spoiled brat. Naruto would be damned if he ever thought of the arrogant jerk as noble. He was also glad the Feudal lords didn't know where Konoha was, let alone try and say they had rule over it because it was in their territory. Fortunately Konoha was in a different province than what Shiro would be ruling anyway. Naruto decided to bring up the rear.

In a plan like this, point was pretty much expected to die while the sides would take more of the brunt of the attack but possibly survive. The rear was situated at the worst possible place to provide real cover thus making it the least necessary target to take out before going after 'the goods'. Then again, the whole group consisted merely of shadow clones except for the one person in the rear. Naruto rarely actually put thought into anything he did. He was a think-on-your-feet type of guy. As such his 'plans' were always hastily thrown together and only tested when used in actual combat. He preferred to be spontaneous and simply fight without thinking too much about strategy; that was Shikamaru's job. But occasionally he employed tactics.

Jiraiya had beaten him every time they sparred in spite of Naruto's superior speed, stamina, chakra capacity, and over all natural attributes. Well, every time but one. That one time Naruto had finally learned the lesson Jiraiya had been trying to teach him. Attacking the person directly wasn't the proper way to attack everyone. There were times when the person shouldn't be the first target. This idea was the basis of genjutsu, attack their senses not them directly, incapacitate them and you win.

The group of clones walked directly into the trap the bandits had set for a group. The real question was whether his fake Shiro looked like a good enough target to expose their position. If someone came along later they would see the bodies. Well at least the blood on the ground would be seen if the bandits moved the bodies. The element of surprise would be void. The bandits apparently thought it was worth attacking, but the real reason escaped Naruto until the very end.

Immediately as it started Naruto felt the clone personifying Shiro cease to exist via a puff of smoke. The next to go was the one he thought would be taken out first, Sakura's twin. This left only the four guard clones and Naruto himself. The group split and engaged the 10 bandits that seemed to be attacking.

The first couple of bandits were knocked out before the wisps of smoke from the Shiro look-alike had fully dissipated. The remaining 5 Narutos took out the last of the bandits that had attacked before realizing there was one more that hadn't engaged.

Up until now the mission had been simple, routine, and what they had all expected. There had been only a simple group of cutthroats and the slight possibility of a lower level ninja. Now though, Naruto knew the rank of the mission increased to that of the A range. The missing jounin from cloud, Yang Koushi crouched in the trees just off the side of the road. This was the same ninja that had been in Lord Nami's mansion with the cloud lord.

Naruto didn't really hold a grudge against the guy. Ninja were tools, and as such they were often used to do some pretty bad stuff. Naruto however hated the idea that ninja weren't people as well; they could choose to not accept a mission. Naruto lived on his feelings without thinking. If not for his conscience and feelings then he would be as bad as the Kyuubi, killing innocents for no good reason.

Koushi was much like Zabuza in that he was willing to kill an innocent man if he was hired to do so. Neither of them liked doing it but assassinations were part of the life of a ninja. That was why emotion was supposed to be removed from a ninja's mind when completing a mission. The situation surrounding Koushi and Naruto's encounter was much like his encounter wit Zabuza. Koushi had been hired to kill a poor farmer so the greedy and rich business man could get more power and money. Naruto and Jiraiya had been hiding out on a farm in the country, away from any sizeable town. Naruto was paying for their stay by helping do chores for the farm. Jiraiya's reason for making Naruto do it alone was that it would help build his strength and stamina. After the chores were done Jiraiya would train him until he passed out from exhaustion. This sometimes lasted until sunrise when Naruto's chores started over.

Naruto was in the farmhouse when he noticed something was off. He immediately searched for what was wrong. Finding Koushi about to kill the family; Naruto attempted to stop him. He came very close to winning the fight, Koushi was off balance but with agility and flexibility Naruto didn't expect his resengan was dodged and a kunai was sunk into his own chest. The penetration wasn't deep but it put him at a severe disadvantage that he couldn't recover from. Oddly Jiraiya conveniently returned from his 'research' just in time to save Naruto's life…again. The cloud jounin fled after a brief attempt to finish the mission in which Jiraiya demonstrated clearly that he was the stronger of the two. There were no further attempts on the family's lives for the next couple of months that Naruto and Jiraiya stayed there.

Apparently this cloud jounin did hold grudges though. He must have been angry because his mission failed because of an enemy genin. Now he had either been hired to rob/kill Shiro or this was strictly personal.

Naruto decided to stall until his messenger clone got back. It would be best to take him on with as many as possible, especially since he lost the last time he fought him. "Its been a while since we saw each other last. What rich bastard hired you to kill Shiro?" The original attack had probably been aimed at Shiro since that was the first clone to be taken out. Shiro and Sakura were probably taken out by him because of the speed they were 'neutralized,' if Naruto wanted to use Jiraiya's word for a dead clone.

"No job, this one is for fun." The tone of voice in which it was said made Naruto's blood run cold.

The man was practically dripping with killer intent. He seemed to enjoy and want to kill for fun. This was nothing like the Koushi he had encountered before. Something was wrong.

Naruto didn't have time to think about it though. The cloud jounin attacked immediately. It was fast, it was precise, and it was not possible for Naruto to dodge. The only thing that saved Naruto's life was one of the 'guards' jumping in the way and taking the hit.

Naruto was able to take advantage of the clone's sacrifice though. He used the 4ths speed jutsu to place himself just behind the clone that was about to puff out of existence and throw a punch at the jounin's stomach. If successful the wind would be knocked out of him giving Naruto just long enough to knock the man unconscious. The plan worked perfectly. The body of the 'guard' blocked Naruto's movements from view until the last second when it ceased to exist. This gave his opponent no time to react except to tighten up and accept the blow.

Naruto was fully ready to follow through with his plan and knock the man out when something happened he did not expect. The henge(transformation) the ninja had been using was released. His punch did hit right on the spot and knocked the wind out of his target. The result was the ninja lost his concentration and let the illusion drop. Naruto was taken back and consequently lost his chance to take advantage of the reeling ninja. It was a sound chuunin.

The whole appearance of the ninja had changed. His hair was dark, his skin pale, his eyes were yellow with snake like slits in them. His movements seemed to be fluid as if he was a snake. Naruto realized he was strong. Probably higher jounin in strength and probably with a cursed seal like the sound five had been. Naruto looked at this…boy. He was only about 9 or 10 and yet he practically reeked of killer intent and what seemed like lethal experience in the art of death. If Naruto had to guess he would have thought the kid's father had been Orochimaru, but he knew that even if the evil ninja had fathered a child he would consider them no more important than any stick you threw on a fire.

The boy didn't take long to regain his composure and prove his experience by moving into a fighting stance. Naruto quickly regained from the shock he had been put in too and started to regard this boy seriously. It was a miracle that Naruto hadn't already been defeated. Shinobi battles never lasted more than a few minutes, it was the mistakes that got one killed, not necessarily the skill or techniques of their opponent. The true art of being a ninja was trickery; not seeing the truth was more dangerous than the opponent's killing blow.

The stance the boy was using was one that Naruto recognized as an offensive style, a derivative of Rock Lee's lotus style. It must have been one of the techniques Orochimaru stole from Konoha and adapted to his own uses and purposes. The next thing that went through Naruto's mind was the pain of a kick to the stomach that sent him flying. The impact made him loose concentration and all of his clones that were still in human form quickly turned into nothing more than little balls of smoke being blown by the light breeze.

The memory of his first C turned A rank mission came to mind. Kakashi's reassuring statement…if you could call it that, ran through his head. "In this world there are people younger than you, and yet they are stronger than me." Naruto had just met one of them. This boy had probably been trained by Orochimaru for his entire life. Now, Naruto was facing ten years of pure training under the most evil ninja he thought ever existed. The Cloud weren't after Shiro, but the Sound seamed to have a reason to want him dead.

Naruto's realization about the origin and identity of this fighter only got him the reward of feeling a kunai slash across his back because of the time it took to think about it. The cut was deep and Naruto immediately noticed two things. The distinct smell of blood and the warm feeling of his blood flowing down his back seemed impossible to ignore. Naruto knew he was in deep trouble. He needed to get out of there fast or he would die. He could still take care of the mission but he needed to live. The Kyuubi's healing affects couldn't be relied on, nor could they be controlled. He needed a medic, namely Sakura, to get to work on his back and quickly.

Naruto created two clones. One ran directly at the mini snake ninja and one picked up the real Naruto and ran for all it was worth back towards the caravan. Naruto had called up as much of the Kyuubi's chakra as he could manage while becoming dizzy with blood loss and pain just before creating the two clones. The result was the Kyuubi's chakra that was called up was split evenly between the three Narutos.

Naruto had learned to use his clones in multiple and very crafty styles to always be unpredictable. The charging Naruto formed his favorite attack in his hand, the resengan. The technique was more powerful than a chidori to someone who knew how to use it. But it was not because of raw power. If that was the only criteria; then the resengan was only equal to the chirori, maybe even inferior. The resengan required less actual chakra to perform, but much more control. So it was much harder to use the full form of it. The chidori on the other hand required the sharingan to use properly as it was strickly a thrust. It got its power from the strongest and fastest strike a human could do, the straight thrust. This strength provided by the thrust and enhanced by chakra, was also its greatest weakness as it was easily countered. The sharingan helped anticipate the opponents attempt at countering and increased the chance of a decisive strike. The resengan on the other hand had no such limitation in its movements. It could be moved around and used as easily as a fist. Simply put the resengan was more powerful due to its adaptability. An unforeseen attack pattern could mean death. The ability to use the resengan in any situation made it a greater technique and tool in battle than the chidori.

The Naruto charging the Sound ninja didn't plan on using any of the agility the attack afforded him though. He cocked his arm back so that the attack would be just like a punch. The resengan was smaller than he normally created but the damage done by even a small one was significant. Unfortunately the little chuunin side stepped and easily avoided the swirling ball of ckakra. Just as the clone's shoulder was passing the face of the chuunin the clone exploded. Trickery was a shinobi's greatest weapon. Naruto had used the resengan to mask his true intention of using what he called a 'blast shadow clone'. He had put as little chakra as possible into the resengan and still make it properly to preserve as much for the explosion as he could. Consequently the explosion was very powerful and perfectly masked the escape of the two retreating Narutos.

The result was a thick dust could that took a few minutes to dissipate so one could see through it. The reduction in the ability to see only served the sound ninja, or so he thought. He was wearing gray, the best all around camouflage color. Naruto on the other hand had a harder time at stealth because he was wearing "LOOK AT ME' orange as he had heard the pink haired girl call it. The effect on the enemy ninja was more than just visibility though.

He had to use a lot of chakra to shield himself from the blast. It had caught him off guard and he was unable to avoid it. Fortunately he survived with only a few scrapes and cuts, no serious damage. The problem was that he couldn't attack the caravan in the state he was in. He had almost run out of chakra and they would now be ready for him. As the cloud dissipated he saw the leaf genin had vanished. The sound ninja let the leaf genin go, he would kill him later. The young chuunin melded back in with the forest and disappeared. He left his 'comrades' on the road for whatever fate found them.

Naruto was slowly going into unconsciousness. He was getting dizzy from the blood loss. He could 'see' the trail of blood he was leaving through the eyes of the clone that was carrying him. He was on its back, but it had to check for the enemy every so often. Naruto felt tons of pain too. He was probably poisoned, but poisons often have little to no affect on him. The Kyuubi tended to hate that stuff and would easily neutralize it. His back on the other hand continued to leak out the precious fluid that kept him alive. Naruto slipped in and out of unconsciousness in the couple of minutes it took for the clone to get him back to the group. It was a miracle he was able to keep the clone around when almost completely out. It came from tons of executions of the technique in battle type situations and practice that made it almost second nature.

Naruto's clone took him as far as he could before Naruto finally entered the unconscious realm and releasing the clone to go back to non existence. Naruto fell unceremoniously onto his back but the momentum of how fast the false ninja was carrying him rolled him onto his stomach. He came to a stop about eighty yards ahead of the approaching caravan. The clone had been traveling along the side of the road so as not to hinder his friends from moving past to engage the threat. Fortunately though, the threat was not following him because of his escape plan.

Naruto entered the familiar hallway that held the entrance to the room containing the Kyuubi's cage. It had a thin layer of water on the floor like always and it was dark, but Naruto had gotten used to darkness. As a ninja, he now preferred the masking darkness to the revealing light. Naruto then thought for a second. He was here, that meant not only was he not conscious, but it was something that seriously affected his chances at survival.

Naruto had known the Kyuubi affected his healing, but it was more along the lines of only improving the speed of his healing rather than rapid regeneration. That only occurred when he almost completely let go and allowed the Kyuubi's chakra to engulf his and nearly control him. His back would require more than just natural healing to stop death. Sakura's or Hinata's skill would be needed to save his life. Sakura would be preferable because of her advanced training under Tsunade. It would be easier for her to adapt her healing techniques to the odd affects the Kyuubi's chakra had on Naruto's body. However this was secondary in Naruto's mind, he would much rather have Hinata provide her care.

He started walking down the hallway to the cage he knew was there. He had only been there twice in his life, once when he first demanded the Kyuubi's chakra to summon the toad boss and once when he had almost died fighting Kabuto. He arrived to find the smiling evil face of the nine tailed fox demon. Only its red eyes and white teeth were visible, but that was how it always was. The fox chose to speak up before Naruto could fully enter the room.

"**You have almost killed us. I will not die because of a weak container."** Its voice was just as Naruto had remembered it, arrogant and filled with killer intent. Naruto then saw the Kyuubi's chakra lash out at him and attempt to drown him like it had done on the first occasion and like it probably had done every time the Kyuubi had taken partial control.

Naruto fought back, he tried to swipe at it to get it off but it was useless. It was going to win. Naruto then noticed a faint light green chakra fighting the Kyuubi's. It was coming out of his back in particular but it was giving him just enough to push the Kyuubi's chakra back with his own. Then, without warning the room started to fade and Naruto lost sight of the massive bars and smiling demon fox.

As Naruto regained conciousness, he was feeling the warm caress of chakra massaged into the cut on his back. The healing technique stung, but he could bear it. Sakura's chakra control was impossibly good; she seamlessly mixed tiny threads with the ones Naruto could feel were the Kyuubi's attempts at healing him. After a few seconds he felt the last parts of his muscles and skin on his back knit together, he opened his eyes as his senses were coming back to their normal strength. His senses were heightened when reached the age of puberty and the Kyuubi's chakra started to affect his development. As a consequence his sense of smell, hearing, and touch were permanently enhanced. His eyes were especially affected, this made it easier to direct the Kyuubi's chakra specifically to them, and utilize the better night vision that the fox eyes provided. His teeth, while not a sense, were also affected. His canines grew longer than normal humans but short than a predatory animal's.

These 'improvements' simply made him better at noticing the details, now it helped snap him out of the half sleep he seemed to be in when he recognized the distinct smell of fresh blood. His next sense to kick in was his hearing as he definitely heard Sakura's voice arguing with the asshole's about twenty yards away. This confused Naruto because he didn't think she knew how to use them. Even if she did know; she didn't use them, especially when she needed to concentrate on healing. Then it hit him as he noticed the hand resting on his shoulder and the voice telling him that he would be fine were both too soft to be Sakura's. He turned his head from looking straight into the dirt and looked up into the face of his love.

He could look at that face indefinitely. He didn't want to move or say anything to ruin the effect. The sun was just over her shoulder. It cast her in a light that made her look exactly like he felt about her. She was an angel, very gentle and kind, but she had strength the world didn't see. She was deceptively strong using a fighting style that used finesse and gentle movements as weapons to disrupt an opponent's body and attacks rather than specifically try and break them. She also possessed the difficult ability to heal. One needed accurate and precise chakra control to do it properly. One could easily destroy but to mend and create took true strength. What he admired about her the most, was she saw something in him that no one else did and despite strength that none of the adults seemed to see, she was the gentlest person he knew. That was probably why she was able to heal his wounds so easily.

He started to get out of the blood soaked ground he was lying in, but the muscles in his back that were just put back together made their protest known. It wasn't as much as he expected it to be though, so he continued to right himself. Hinata really did have a talent for healing. The feeling of pride for his girlfriend didn't last long though. The obnoxious voice of Nami Shiro made itself a pain to everyone's ears. Naruto finished standing up in time to see the caravan come to a stop about ten feet from where he was along previously lying unconscious.

He had been about two hundred yards away when he collapsed. Hinata had immediately run to him. She had been using her Byakugan to look ahead and behind ever since they slowed down. She had seen him a little before Shikamaru had noticed him but what put her into shock was the solid line of blood trailing behind him. He was bleeding badly, imminent death badly. Seeing him collapse into the dirt snapped her out of her shock. She moved with all speed she had to get to him. Sakura had been very startled to see Hinata blow past her before she even realized Naruto was in danger.

Sakura was currently in a heated argument with the asshole of a client about the 'wasted time' of taking care of Naruto. Apparently Shiro had tried to order Hinata to leave him alone and let the horses run him over to finish the job as that was the more 'humane' thing to do. He would only hinder them as he was only a genin. His condition obviously showed he was incapable of handling things himself.

Sakura was showing great restraint. She would have already hit Naruto with enough force to bring down the Hokage tower for even suggesting something half as absurd. Naruto reasoned her restraint was because normal people were frail, and this guy looked like he couldn't even take a decent punch from a kid let alone Sakura. Naruto walked over to the fuming lord as if there had been nothing wrong a minute ago.

The future lord stopped mid rant when he saw Naruto moving around without a problem. The dark red line down the center of the road and the stain on the back of his jacket and pants were more than enough to say he should be dead. The blood still looked wet, and now he was moving as if there was no injury at all. He wanted to yell at him for holding up his passage, but he was too shocked at this novice's utter lack of concern with coming that close to death. What came out was weaker than he wanted to sound, but at least it was insulting. "Your pay will be reduced. You are delaying my arrival. You couldn't even take care of one simple problem without holding me up. What good are any of you?"

For Sakura's part she stayed rather quiet. Though, this was probably because Naruto, being Naruto, couldn't let a statement like that sit. "I'm the future Hokage! I was able to stop a foreign ninja of higher rank from killing you.' Naruto slightly paused and lowered his voice. He stepped closer and looked hard at the person he was supposed to protect. "Or would you rather I have let him kill you without any problems? If it weren't for us, YOU'D be dead now."

Confronting the jerk with his probable death without them seemed to put the lord back in his place. He fumed but obediently went back into his carriage. Naruto backed off and went to where Hinata was still standing. She was standing just to the side of here Naruto's blood had pooled under him as she was healing him.

Naruto couldn't think of anything to say. He loved her, wanted to thank her, felt pride for her ability to heal, but he couldn't express it in words. He got to her and brought her into a tight hug. Then almost on call he immediately spun her around in an enthusiastic gesture akin to Naruto's style of being the number one most hyper active and surprising ninja.

Hinata was too shocked to properly enjoy the hug. It was improper to show special care for one teammate over another while on a mission. That had been her thought as Naruto strode towards her. That idea went out the window as he brought her into a hug that felt perfect. Even the overly energetic spin felt perfectly right. She wanted to stay in that hold and was glad that she had saved him so she could enjoy this. Shikamaru coughed lightly into his hand trying to give a subtle hint to break it up while Sakura merely laughed at their antics. Unfortunately Naruto had never been good at picking up hints and Hinata was in too much of a blissful shock to notice.

"Do you think we can keep going now?" It was Sakura's playful jab that separated the two and put them into full blown embarrassment. Hinata turned a shade of red that was very similar to a dark red rose while Naruto put his hand behind his head accompanied by his trademark laugh. Shortly after that the four ninja moved back into their original positions and the caravan started moving again.

All in all, there were only about ten minutes 'wasted,' according to Shiro, on healing Naruto. The head servant didn't try and set a pace faster than the ninja could travel by foot, by this time he knew it was useless. He doubted even a single horse and rider could outrun them. He simply kept the pace he knew the horses could hold without getting too tired. They wouldn't need to work for too much longer though. It was already only a few more hours to sunset. They would camp for the night. After all, Nami Shiro had no idea what it meant to keep moving through the night. He would demand a hot meal and a bed to sleep in.

Author's Note

Well I hope you guys liked this chapter. I'm about to head into a very demanding section of my semester so it might take a while for me to update again. I want to thank Crystlshake for reading through this chapter and helping me out with some of the feel of it. I don't have this story fully set in my head, I generally write it how it feels like it should flow. Keep writing reviews. It really helps to know if you liked it or hated it. I do try and reply to the reviews in the review section if a question is asked. Any way, I hope this isn't a waste of your time reading.


	5. Missing Leaf Ninja

Chapter 5

The Missing Leaf Ninja

Shortly after sunset Shikamaru noticed the caravan slow down and start looking for a clearing by the road. It didn't take long for them to find a suitable field and stop. The team had been prepared for this; they quickly and easily shifted their positions to form a perimeter around the servants working to set up a small camp for the night. The servants proved that they were chosen for this trip for a reason. Each one seemed to know exactly what was required of them and their modest camp was set up rather quickly. The only tent that would fit more than a person or two was the tent for lord Nami's son, which was much larger than the young lord needed. The pompous jerk wasn't seen leaving the carriage until well after his dinner had already begun being cooked. He left the carriage and quickly entered the tent that had been prepared for him. After the camp had been set up, Hinata and Shikamaru made a circular search pattern around the campsite by checking the immediate area outside the clearing's perimeter. They came back with no problems or activity and a matching report from both Naruto and Sakura.

Their client, or at least their 'package' had obviously still been angry when he left the carriage. Shikamaru ordered Naruto to create a few shadow clones to guard the perimeter while they had a small meeting. Naruto quickly obliged and again Hinata was amazed by the fact that he didn't seem to need any hand seals at all to perform the jounin level technique. Naruto knew exactly what was coming next. The whole team looked expectantly at him. There wasn't much space between the four young ninja and Naruto could see the concern, confusion, and consentration on each of his teammate's faces. They were just outside the camp in a few of the trees, hidden from anyone that was not a ninja and looking for them.

"We need to know exactly what happened this afternoon." It was a calm statement from Shikamaru but Naruto could tell both of his teammates shared the same attitude. Naruto proceeded to tell his team, in as much detail as he could remember, including the part about how he had known the missing Cloud ninja that the Sound ninja had impersonated. Naruto had made the mistake of being shocked when the Sound chuunin had dropped the transformation. That was what lead to Naruto ending up on the loosing side of the fight. Naruto had escaped with an interesting use of his clones, which impressed his teammates.

After Naruto was done with his part of the story, Shikamaru filled him in on the last little bit that had occurred after he had passed out. His mind had been working on what the appearance of the Sound ninja ment. "It is most likely not Cloud that want to kill Shiro. The Sound probably posed as them to fool lord Nami. This means they are planning some kind of attack against us in the near future. They are either testing our strength or are looking to make us appear weak so they can gain allies. Needless to say the next attack will be executed with a greater number of more skilled chuunin or jounin." He then signed and gave his trademark line. "This is troublesome." There was nothing else that could be exactly deduced from the small information they had. Though because this was an important event for the Fire country it was likely that Orochimaru himself was there, but it was far more likely that Kabuto or Sasuke had formerly been entrusted to lead this mission. The problem was that both had been leaf ninja and knew each of the members of the team better than anyone else under Orochimaru's leadership.

Shikamaru then decided on the watch schedule for the night. Naruto, since he already had his clones in position would take first watch followed by Sakura, then Hinata. Shikamaru would take the early morning shift. The all agreed and then separated. Each of the three ninja chose a hidden place to sleep in the trees. Naruto noted that each of the ninja preparing for 'bed' had chosen locations close to those his clones had taken. They had spread out around the perimeter so they couldn't all be hit with one strike. Naruto paid close attention because he would be the first one taking watch. It was usually during the first or last watch that an enemy ninja would strike. Those were the times when one could easily get lazy, because the guarding had just started, or the shift would be just about over.

Sakura had been only slightly concerned, most likely about the increased threat;. Shikamaru had his normal lazy but thoughtful expression; Naruto still couldn't figure out how he pulled that look off. Shikamaru's look had probably been because of the implied threats to their home village. But Hinata had a concerned look that seemed to be directed specifically at him.

Naruto's mood had fallen almost immediately after they started moving. He had broken his promise that he would never run again. The promise he made to himself on his own blood after Zabuza's Demon Brothers had attacked. It was the second major promise he had broken. The first had been broken because 'The Bastard' had wanted power and ran away. Naruto was not able to return him to Sakura. That was the only promise he had ever broken in his life…until now.

Just then he heard the soft call of one of the servants. The servant walked to the edge of the clearing and softly called for the 'Polite Ninja Girl'. One of his clones dropped down right in front of the servant which evidently startled the man as the orange clad ninja seemingly appeared in front of him. "What do you need?" The clone's tone was soft and quiet, it held no malice in it but the servant was too startled to really notice. "L-l-lord Nami requests the presence of the dark haired female ninja that has been trained in the proper manner when addressing a lord; a Miss Hyuuga." Naruto could easily tell the servant was nervous around him, but he didn't know if it was because of the man's previous encounters with ninja or from fear from the 'noble' prick.

The clone told him that she would be there in a few minutes before disappearing again. The clone quickly moved to Hinata's location just as she was about to get comfortable in the spot she had chosen.

Hinata had witnessed Naruto's slow descent into a melancholy mood all afternoon. She knew something was bothering him. Something was bothering him and Naruto wasn't doing a good job of hiding it, which meant something was really wrong. She couldn't figure out what she should do about it though. Just as she was settling down on a branch to sleep Naruto jumped up next to her and told her that the "smug lord" had requested to speak with her in his tent. Then Naruto quickly moved back to the position he had been guarding, that meant it was a clone, the real one would have stayed a second longer. She had learned that the clones recognized and respected the difference between her relationship with the real Naruto and themselves. She tried not to dwell on that idea for long because it must get very confusing or at least complicated for Naruto's psyche.

Naruto watched as Hinata quickly got up and moved to the master tent's entrance. A slight smirk appeared at the corner of his mouth as her sudden 'appearance' surprised the guards. They were obviously not used to the common movements of ninja. She was let in to the asshole's sleeping area and the scowl he didn't know he had been wearing since he received the asshole's request returned to his face. He hadn't been happy that this boy was inviting Hinata into his tent late at night. Naruto knew Hinata had no immoral intentions. But from what Naruto had seen of the man inside, he had no qualms about assuming it wasn't good for them, the team of ninja or the couple.

Hinata entered the large tent that could easily house all of the caravan servants with some caution. She wasn't worried about physical attack, but it was improper for a lady to be in a man's sleeping area after hours unless they were married. The way the servant had stated the request implied Shiro viewed her as somewhat noble. Though, Hinata could tell that she wasn't going to be treated as a 'fully noble' lady, specifically because of the time frame and nature of the request.

"Miss Hyuuga…" Shiro greeted Hinata from the other side of the tent. He was sitting on a light but beautifully carved wooden chair. He had trailed off expecting Hinata to supply him with her personal name. He had paid little attention to it when she gave it the first time. This fact was not lost on Hinata. She had been more than a little angry with him for the chauvinistic and pompous treatment of the ninja guarding his life. Hinata steadily approached the future provincial lord. She appeared confident to spite her shy nature, but she felt no reason to fear this jerk.

Shiro quickly acknowledged that he would not get the kunoichi's personal name so casually and motioned for her to sit in front of him. There was no chair near where he had indicated; a demeaning statement. Shiro's plans had to be altered a little bit. He had wanted to be more informal and use the girl's personal name rather than her family name. Of course he wasn't planning on allowing her to use his personal name but that was beside the point. He wanted information, and the simple fact that she had come into his sleeping quarters at night suggested impropriety, she would be socially scared while he would remain blameless. He wanted to hurt these ninja as much as possible; he could use the fact that she was in his quarters at night to pry information out of her. This simple meeting at this time of night was enough to hurt the reputation of the somewhat naive but proper girl. To get at the others he would need information. Fortunately being a noble lord meant that he was skilled at getting information out of people without them realizing they had given anything away. The lack of a personal name was no real problem, after all, he had never failed to get the information he wanted.

Hinata wanted to end this as quickly as possible. She did not enjoy his company nor the trouble that this situation could create. It could only prove productive towards whatever goals the 'prince' had and cause more trouble for herself and her team.

"Your team seams to be mostly made up of street trash, except for you. You have been trained in how to properly respect a lord. Why is it you have this training?" Shiro wanted to slightly compliment the girl to put her a little at ease with him. He also wanted to make her team members seem insignificant or unimportant so she would have no need to protect them.

Hinata grimaced internally, he had just insulted her team and her love. He also did a poor job of hiding his intentions. Hinata quickly understood what was going on. The lord wanted to get information, probably more than just about her. She would now have to be on her guard fully.

"The head of my clan has deemed it necessary for us to be properly trained in such customs." She adopted a slightly humble posture and tone but did not show any sign of submission. She knew how to answer questions without giving away any of the information the questioner wanted. It was socially wrong to ask questions too specifically so it was often very easy to avoid giving away information and still look like you are giving a correct answer. Then again, she was a ninja, and there was no need to be honest with this client so if the need arose she would have no problem lying to him. That brought up a whole other issue however. She was a terrible liar, by ninja standards anyway; most normal people would be oblivious to the fact she was lying though. The problem was that politicians were often skilled in spotting a deceit; they needed to be good at it for negotiations. The fact that she didn't know how skilled Shiro was in recognizing a lie, combined with her less than stellar capabilities, meant it was dangerous to try and deceive the future lord.

Half an hour later Shiro finally gave in, he had asked almost every question he could think of about all of the ninja on the team and he had learned almost nothing that he had not already figured out or could safely assumed. The orange-clad one was a prankster, the pink haired one was a medic specialist, the leader had been chosen to lead this mission by the Hokage, and the one in front of him had was born into a 'noble' clan. He had just one more avenue to explore before he would give up. "You have a close relationship with your teammates right?"

Hinata got concerned, this was an odd question, one that could easily lead to a bad line of follow up questions. "Yes, I trust all of my teammates. A ninja needs to in order to survive." No information was given away there, but this was a setup question, not one designed to gather information.

"You seamed to be very concerned when the point man lost a lot of blood." It was more of a statement than a question. But it was obvious he was expecting a reply from the dark haired girl. Hinata was good at her training and had been able to keep the specific names of her teammates out of the conversation. So Shiro was forced to use descriptions, which visibly frustrated the manipulative son of Lord Nami.

"He had lost a lot of blood. As a medic I was not sure if I could save him." Hinata was worried, she saw where this line of questioning was going. The lord, or at least one of his servants may have figured out that Naruto and Hinata were in a relationship. This could be dangerous.

"He thanked you in a very…odd manner for a shinobi. It seamed like you and he are closer than you are to the others." Shiro was smiling at this point.

Hinata didn't like the look on her opponent's face. He looked like he thought he was now winning this 'battle of wits'. "He is often a very energetic person." Hinata wanted to say more but knew any more, would be saying too much and give away too much information. That was the main danger in situations like these. Too many people wanted to explain their answer in order to make sure that the answer was taken correctly so they didn't give any wrong ideas or information. The problem was that the explanation often told more information than the actual answer.

Shiro saw the slight blush in the face of the girl in front of him. Her pale lavender eyes contrasted with the pink of her cheeks. He smiled widely like he had just gotten more information, but in reality he had only confirmed what he had already concluded from his head servant's report. This was the way to get at the orange clad blonde and try and put them all in their place. This girl's clan considered themselves noble and noble clans always arranged their marriages in order to position themselves better politically. All he had to do was threaten to get her father to give him her hand in marriage, after all, what other real choice would her father have. The man his daughter was leaning towards was a street rat. It would be easy to convince her father to give his daughter to a much better suited family. Shiro's arrogance didn't allow him to consider the fact that ninja operated under different social rules than his 'higher society'.

"You and your…obnoxious teammate will not look at each other for the rest of this mission. I will be giving your father an offer he cannot refuse for your hand in marriage and I will not have my future wife tainted by a lowly peasant." Shiro said it with such smugness in his voice that he failed to notice the lack of shock or fear in Hinata's stance and face.

Hinata had not rid herself of her shyness fully, that was part of her personality, but she had been able to become more bold and confident in her time with Naruto. Her time in the tent with Shiro had only lessened her respect for the _boy _in front of her. Even though he was 3 years her senior and technically a man, he was as immature as a 5 year old. She did not show any of this to the sitting 'lord' however and simply stood in front of him. She had not been offered a seat as an equal when she entered and so remained standing as any self-respecting ninja would have done. She had adopted a slightly humble tone and stance at the beginning of their conversation without looking submissive as she had been taught, but now there was nothing humble about her posture and she had every intention of speaking in a tone fitting her stance.

"You are forgetting your place. You are not in position to give orders to us. Your father hired us, he is our client. He is the only one aside from a higher ranking ninja that can give us orders. He gave us no orders other than to protect you, thus we are under no obligation to follow your demands. Do not think that my father will give in to your demands. The Hyuuga have never given in to outside pressure. You are our target or our mission. We are allowed the freedom to do our job as we see fit. And if you don't want a 'tainted' wife then I suggest you look elsewhere. I am a ninja, I have been trained to assassinate nobles like you." Hinata was angry because of the arrogance of the self centered boy sitting in front of her. She had only gotten angrier as she continued her small speech but she had kept her tone and stance calm. She finished with a threat to the lord's son. Somehow that calmness had given the threat more substance than the words alone. She had been trained for assassinations since she was young after all, which made the threat all the more real. She simply turned and left without waiting for a dismissal from the asshole that had just tried to tell her she couldn't see her love for the rest of her life.

Shiro was shocked. He had just been scolded by one of the female ninja like he was some peasant's little child…again. No one was allowed to get away with talking to him like this. He was about to call his guards in on this 'self-righteous' girl when he realized that she was gone. He hadn't dismissed her but she just seemed to disappear. It hadn't occurred to him that ninja could disappear easily even when in plain sight and that the last girl had easily taken out two of his father's best guards. This one could probably do the same. He was too angry to even call for his servant to get the leader of the ninja team. He wanted to punish them by telling them that their pay would be reduced. He was in no state to do anything calmly so he simply made not of the incident as a servant came in to help him prepare for bed.

Naruto watched as Hinata came out of the tent about forty minutes after she entered. She looked angry and by the hurried way the servants entered and left the tent after her it looked like the arrogant asshole of a lord's son was just as angry. Hinata was just a lot better at hiding it because she was a ninja. He watched as the small girl quickly and nimbly moved back into the position she had been in before she was called away. Within seconds she was curled up in her hidden spot to sleep. Naruto liked watching the small girl sleep, but his position in the perimeter formation didn't permit him a good view. But he did take note when one of the clones he had on patrol saw her shiver a few minutes later.

He had positioned some clones as permanent stations to be concealed and guard while others would patrol. The stationary ones would be harder to see, but had limited visibility from their concealed positions. Conversely, the roaming guards were harder to hit, easier to spot, and could see more. Naruto took off his jacket and gave it to one on patrol to cover Hinata with. There was no explanation necessary. The real jacket would last longer than a clone one, especially if Naruto lost the ability to hold the technique when his shift was over and he went to sleep. If the clone disappeared, so did the jacket. A real one was better.

The night passed quietly after that. There were no complications, except for Shikamaru's critical eye of Naruto. Two of Naruto's clones had still been in existence when Shikamaru was woken up for his shift. He had thought this meant that Naruto was awake but was informed by Hinata that Naruto was in fact asleep. She knew because of the jacket he had placed on her. It looked like Naruto was so comfortable with creating and holding the shadow clones that he could keep his clones active while he was asleep. That was information Shikamaru was surprised to learn but like always he stored it away for future reference and he made note to question Naruto about it later. If he could hold them while unconscious why did the clones he made cease to exist when he lost consciousness in the fight? Naruto's ability to keep the clones for that long also meant that he had even more stamina than Shikamaru remembered. Naruto had always been good with that kind of thing, but all of this added up to something, Shikamaru couldn't quite get what it was though. There was something about Naruto that he was missing.

Ninja were trained to be ready to move the moment they woke up if necessary. With the way they slept last night there would be little the team needed to do in order to move out other than eat breakfast, but again if necessary that could be done on the move. Consequently Shikamaru didn't feel the need to wake the three ninja until the servants were almost all done packing up. Naruto, of course, was the heaviest sleeper and the loudest one upon waking up but the servants didn't seem to notice. Within minutes the four ninja had all had a small breakfast, drank some water and were ready to leave again.

The last leg of the journey took a long time,for Naruto anyway. It was really boring. There were no outlaws on the way and the caravan moved at a quick but steady pace the horses could maintain indefinitely. It was slow for a ninja. The defensive positions of the team had not been changed and Naruto performed his scout duty well. He scouted ahead and then fell back to his normal position. He left a shadow clone in his position when he went ahead so there was some defense. They arrived at the Fire capital early in the afternoon, which would allow the team to get acquainted with the city before nightfall. It was easier to assassinate someone in a city. People felt safe surrounded by people, but the noises and extra unnatural shadows only improved the effectiveness of a ninja's stealth. It was easy to hide in a crowd and thus, a body guard had that much more difficulty doing their job. The advantage was to the enemy, or the attacking assassin.

The caravan pulled up to an expensive looking hotel and the head servant entered to get the rooms ready. Needless to say, Nami Shiro received a luxurious room with expensive decorations. The servants were on lower floors with little more than a bed. There was no room reserved for the ninja team. Shikamaru didn't know if that was a fresh order from the package or if that had been the plan all along. That was fine though, the team didn't really need a designated place to sleep, it would be just one more place to guard. Besides, the servants were kind enough, he was sure they would be willing to sacrifice some floor space to their real body guards. The servants understood that the lord's guards were only concerned about the lord's son himself. Floor space at night was a small price to pay for some ninja protection on the side.

Shortly after their arrival a messenger was reported by Sakura. She said that the servant was not using a transformation, so it was likely the real thing. The messenger, oblivious to the scrutiny or the fact that there were even ninja around, presented himself to the guards outside Nami Shiro's room and announced his intentions. He was allowed to enter after a few minutes and then, after receiving a reply, left quickly after a small time inside the room. Hinata was assigned to be the one actually in the room with the pompous jerk because she, or so Shikamaru thought, would be the one least likely to cause any more problems. Hinata informed Shikamaru that Shiro was going to attend a banquette party that night at the palace when he checked in with her.

That suited Shikamaru just fine. He would take Hinata with him and leave Sakura and Naruto at the hotel to get some rest. They could take the late/early shifts of guard duty. Hinata would need to explain some of the customs of court activity to him and Shikamaru would need to at least make contact with the missing ninja guarding the Lord of Fire's estate.

At any given time there were about twenty missing Leaf ninja guarding the Lord of Fire, his palace, and anything the Lord decided he wanted protected. These were not ninja hunted by the Leaf. They were only technically classified as missing because they were permanently guarding the head of Fire country. Their village loyalties were still to the Leaf much more than any other ninja village, but their loyalties were much looser than a normal Leaf ninja. They were under the employ of the Fire lord and not on a mission from the Hokage. Their status was not as enemy ninja though; they were allowed to rejoin the village if they wanted, though most did not. They were friendly to actual Leaf ninja and would assist them when they could, in much the same way the Leaf ninja passing through would help them out. Mutual respect and common background was the primary basis for this relationship, but it was known that they couldn't be fully relied upon like a fellow Leaf ninja.

As such, it was possible that Shikamaru would be able to negotiate for some time off when Shiro was in the Fire Palace. If he negotiated right, both teams; his and the missing ninja; would benefit from some rest time. If Shiro was in the Fire palace, he would already be guarded by the ninja guarding the palace and there would be no such need for Shikamaru's team. In addition, Shikamaru's team could relieve one or two of the missing ninja while Shiro was there too. It wasn't that hard to see the benefit of the proposal to both sides.

Hinata informed Shikamaru when they would be leaving for the palace and in turn Shikamaru relayed his plan to Naruto and Sakura. It took only a few sentences before Sakura understood what he was going to attempt, but Naruto seemed lost at the idea of friendly missing Leaf ninja. Sakura verbally berated her idiot of a teammate for traveling for "two and a half years and not knowing any friendly missing ninja", he "had been classified as one" during the time he was traveling with Jiraiya. Sakura then proceeded to give a teacher like lecture about the missing ninja inhabiting the city. Shikamaru left the two old teammates shortly after Sakura began her explanation and proceeded to the palace on the rooftops.

Hinata was down on the streets, close to Shiro, and disguised as a simple servant. Shikamaru was on the rooftops guarding from that position. He was amazed at how many ninja were in the capital. It didn't take much effort to spot one here or there. Shikamaru knew he was missing a lot of the ninja activity, but he was surprised at the shear number. He hadn't expected to ever see this many ninja in one place outside of a ninja village. They were all moving with stealth to keep their actions and intentions secret, but there were a lot of unskilled ninja or at least a lot of slips that allowed Shikamaru to spot them.

They arrived at the party without incident. Hinata seemed to disappear from Shiro's point of view as soon as they got within sight of the palace. What had really happened was that she jumped up to move along the rooftops and walls of the buildings with Shikamaru. They held a silent conversation using slight nods and hand gestures to indicate the threats they spotted and how many. It was staggering; they had spotted enough to estimate at least fifty active ninja in the city. A few, not a real threat but still note worthy, wore Cloud insignia. That was to be expected though; the marriage of the Fire lord's daughter had a groom from the Cloud's native country.

Hinata and Shikamaru spotted five ninja guarding the entrance and courtyard to the Fire Palace. They all seemed to be of lower chuunin rank and skill. The two ninja body guards moved into the palace with their charge while fully aware their own movements were being watched very carefully. The whole time they all concealed themselves so that the nobles had no idea they were there, unless they had prior knowledge of their presence. Hinata entered the main hall where the dance and banquette was going to be held and proceeded to keep an eye on her charge. There were about 15 other ninja positioned randomly throughout the room. Some blended as guests or servants hiding their identity and intent, some just made their presence fully unknown to the nobles by staying hidden, but two were putting on entertainment by performing some basic fire breathing techniques. They were obviously some of the missing ninja employed by the wealthy Fire lord.

Shikamaru had parted with Hinata almost immediately after gaining entrance to the palace. He was well aware his movements were even more closely watched as he was now not directly guarding the noble he had been accompanying. Shikamaru made note of all of the missing ninja he came across. It looked like almost all of them were older, about twenty-five or thirty. They also all seemed to be lower chuunin in rank and strength, but he knew not to make full judgments based only on looks. After a few minutes he had accomplished what he wanted to. The leader of the group understood he was looking for him and made his position known. Shikamaru approached cautiously. The leader looked to be slightly older than thirty but he looked the rank of jounin and had obviously been a jounin for a while in order to have become this group's leader. It seamed that he was the strongest though and that all of the others were chuunin.

Shikamaru presented his proposal to the leader. The man, who wore a protective shirt under slightly modified flack jacket and dark blue pants, looked at him hard. "Who are the members of your team?"

Shikamaru didn't think anything wrong with the question. This man was obviously sizing up their strength to get a better judge on whether or not the trade in shifts and terms was worth it. "Nara Shikamaru, chuunin team leader; Haruno Sakura, chuunin medic specialist; Hyuuga Hinata, chuunin; Uzumaki Naruto, genin." Shikamaru didn't see a need to give the specialist designations of a Hyuuga to a former Leaf ninja, and Naruto didn't really have a specialty.

The missing ninja looked like he was pleased with the offer he was getting until the last name came up. His face changed from a slight smile to one of a frown of…anger. "Uzumaki Naruto? Is that law still in place about him?"

This confused Shikamaru. He had no idea there was a law specific to Naruto. Sure it seemed like most of the village hated him, but he didn't know he did anything to warrant a law against him. "I don't know about any law." He'd definitely need to talk with Naruto alone once he got back to the hotel.

"Then it is still in place. I will not accept him. No deal."

This frustrated the intelligent shadow user. His deal was going to be ruined because another one of the ex villagers had a grudge against the ex prankster. "Why?" His tone and stance was a little defiant.

The answer came without hesitation like the man was expecting the question. But Shikamaru knew it wasn't the real answer. It didn't matter, if Shikamaru was able to resolve the answer the man gave there would be no problem with the deal. "He's only a genin."

"Is that all? He is just as skilled as any of the other members of my team. He only failed his last exam because one of his teammates failed the first portion of the exam and thus so did he." Shikamaru never thought he would need to verbally defend Naruto for any reason, let alone his lack of rank.

"That means he still failed. A ninja must rely on his team, if one fails the whole team fails." The man hadn't so much as blinked at Shikamaru's explanation.

A sigh escaped Shikamaru before his soft "How troublesome" followed it. "I know Naruto would be up for a fight. Select anyone of your subordinates to fight him. If he can't prove his worth then you make the terms. The fight will be outside the main entrance to the city at zero-four-hundred." Shikamaru obviously hadn't seen all of this man's subordinates and he didn't know if Naruto could win the fight. But the object wasn't to win. Like the final test of the chuunin exam the point was to prove your worth, not necessarily to win. It would be easier to prove Naruto's worth if his opponent was strong. Naruto would give a stronger showing if his opponent was skilled.

Shikamaru's counter part apparently saw the value of the idea and agreed. It was easy for a ninja to die in a competition like this, but that was part of the life of a ninja. The leader could kill that murdering demon by choosing an opponent too strong for a genin to handle. One needed to be sure of their team's skills. After their business was concluded Shikamaru wasted no more time in front of the larger man. He quickly made his way back to the ball room as the dancing was just starting. It was going to be a long night, but right now, he would take the rest the palace ninja afforded him.

It was late, about thirty minutes after midnight before Shiro left the party. To no one's surprise there was a rather young girl on his arm as he left. She had obviously had less to drink than he did, but Shikamaru didn't feel she was completely incapable of making some decisions. Besides, Ninja were hired to be unseen body guards, they were not to impose on their target's lifestyle unless they absolutely had to.

Shikamaru didn't send Hinata in with Shiro and…his company. Instead he had Hinata activate her Byakugan and watch the outside wall to make sure there were no threats entering from outside. Hinata was left standing in front of the doors that lead to Shiro's hotel room. She had great control of her Byakugan and could watch the outside entrances without invading the privacy of the room's occupants. Shikamaru told her she would be relieved in a few minutes. Sakura would be given the next watch. Shikamaru would relieve Sakura. Naruto would be taking the first watch of the morning. Shikamaru neglected to tell Hinata that Naruto's turn in the rotation would only be if he didn't loose too badly.

Shikamaru quickly found the room Sakura was using. He entered the female quarters without a sound, the four servant girls occupying the room were sleeping soundly, oblivious to their male intruder. The kunoichi lying on the floor however was not as unaware. She noticed the entrance of the Y chromosome because she was trained to be alert for intruders even in her sleep. Shikamaru found her still lying down but he knew better than to think her closed eyes meant she was asleep. She was ready to move and strike at the slightest hint of aggression. Giving himself some space incase she decided to act before he was ready he softly told her it was her turn on watch.

Sakura had to hand it to Shikamaru. He was very good at stealth. The only indication she had received at all about his presence was the slight click of the door hitting a brush one of the servants had left on the floor. She had awoken because it was too soft of a sound to have been made by someone casually opening the door. Shikamaru had entered the rest of the way silently, which meant aggressive intruder to her. Then, like the smart man he was he announced his presence and intentions while still a small distance away. He had noticed she was not simply asleep. Shikamaru informed her that their 'troublesome package', she would have used more colorful descriptions, had company that night. She shouldn't barge in just because she hears multiple people in there. This brought a slight blush from the pink haired girl.

Shikamaru watched the team's medical specialist leave to give Hinata some much needed rest. Now he needed to find Naruto and inform him of his situation. He also needed to get some information from the blonde. Shikamaru knew every ninja kept secrets, most even wore a metaphorical mask if not a physical one to help them keep those secrets. But whatever this one was, Shikamaru, as the team leader needed to know. It affected the ability of the team to perform the mission. Shikamaru searched most of the male servant rooms but did not find the blonde. Then Shikamaru remembered that Naruto had casually said he preferred to sleep outside rather than in a small room with people. It was odd, but Shikamaru understood. His friend had grown up in an empty apartment without anyone else, he felt safer in the open rather than in a tight space with multiple people.

Shikamaru immediately moved to the roof of the building. There he found Naruto sleeping in a hidden spot with a shadow clone, fully awake, sitting on the far side of the roof dropping water balloons. It immediately made sense to Shikamaru. Naruto was only able to hold the technique while unconscious if he was prepared for it. He had probably practiced for insanely long hours and had many sleepless nights to be able to do this. He used a shadow clone as a guard. And it was best to be alone when one performed and used such a technique, he wouldn't want information like that to be casually passed around. That didn't tell Shikamaru everything though, Naruto had gained some stamina on his travels, as evident by the clone now looking curiously at him. But Naruto's stamina was apparently greater than anyone else he knew, to include Lee, who trained constantly even while asleep. Stamina was not gained easily. Shikamaru also needed to know what the law was and why that would affect the missing ninja's decision to accept or decline his offer. The law had to be almost as old as they were for the older man to know of it.

Naruto woke up immediately from the feel of the clone disappearing. He didn't move, he didn't want to give his position away to a possible attacker, but then he noticed it was Shikamaru. The clone had dismissed itself rather than getting hit. Naruto sat up and greeted his team leader. He put his jacket back on, it had been draped across his torso as a small blanket but now that he was getting up it would be more useful around his shoulders. Shikamaru's face told him that there were serious matters and Naruto didn't like the look. The first question that came out of Shikamaru's mouth made Naruto go into a fearful panic.

"Naruto, the villagers have always looked at you with a less than pleased look. I just learned there is a law concerning you and it affects the mission. What is the law?" Shikamaru was surprised to see the utter terror in his friend's face after asking that question. He had never seen Naruto display fear before. In fact the blonde seemed to thrive in life threatening situations. Now there was more fear in the former prankster than he had seen on a cornered puppy's face.

Naruto knew that Shikamaru had no idea what he was really asking. But Naruto also knew that if he told him a lie it wouldn't fit and Shikamaru would know it. Shikamaru also needed to know as the team leader if the information affected the mission. Naruto resigned to his fate. His head dropped and his voice became quiet soft. Shikamaru almost had to strain to hear the answer against the background noise of the city.

"The law is that no one is allowed to talk about the details of how the Fourth Hokage defeated the nine-tailed demon fox that attacked our village sixteen years ago." Naruto paused and Shikamaru thought he was done and was going to have to ask more specific questions. Naruto continued before Shikamaru could ask though. "The Fourth was not strong enough to actually defeat the demon. It was too strong. The villagers hate me because I was born on the exact day the Fourth died and the Kyuubi was defeated. The Fourth was forced to use a forbidden technique to seal the demon. The technique cost him his life but the demon was sealed away…inside me."

Naruto's line of thinking had become disjointed and hard to follow but Shikamaru was able to piece together the meaning what Naruto was saying. The ramifications of what he just said filled in everything Shikamaru needed to know. The villagers viewed Naruto as, or at least responsible for, the Kyuubi. The law was that no one was allowed to talk about the Kyuubi being sealed in Naruto. Obviously Naruto was scared about how his friends would react if they knew. He didn't want the rejection he had felt his whole life coming from those he considered his friends as well. He had been forced to grow up on his own because none of the adults wanted to be near him.

This definitely explained a lot about Naruto. It explained the pain Naruto had talked about during his first chuunin exam when he fought and defeated Neji. Come to think of it, it was probably the demon fox's chakra that helped Naruto win that fight as well. The stamina could be explained, at least partially by the fox, and why Sakura had told him that Hinata was the best one to heal Naruto's back wound. Hinata could see chakra much easier than Sakura could and could heal his wound more easily despite the experience Sakura had over her.

This information also helped explain why the leader of the palace ninja took note of Naruto and wouldn't accept him. That one answer pretty much answered every question Shikamaru ever had about Naruto. Shikamaru came to his conclusion in time to see Naruto's head drop in sorrow. It had obviously taken Shikamaru a few moments to consider all the implications of what Naruto had just told him so it must have seemed like hours for Naruto who was waiting for the reaction as to whether Shikamaru would hate him or not.

Shikamaru decided to change the subject in order to try and show that this new information didn't affect him the way Naruto obviously expected it to. "At zero-four-hundred you are scheduled to fight outside the main entrance in order to show our skill to the palace ninja. You will have no backup but the leader of the missing ninja will be watching. The mission will be much easier if you do well, and our success might be determined by the amount of rest we can get." Shikamaru was glad to see Naruto's expression went from sad to his normal happy self. He definitely was the Leaf's most hyperactive and surprising ninja. Shikamaru just didn't know how surprising and amazing his friend was until just now. "You can get some rest until then. I need to rest too, my watch is in a few hours. I'll have Sakura wake you if you are not already awake a half hour before your scheduled time." With that Shikamaru disappeared into his preferred weapon.

Shikamaru moved down the hall containing the entrance to Shiro's room. The two large guards outside the door would have been foreboding to a normal person, but no ninja he knew would have been scared by them. Sure a skilled samurai could easily beat a skilled ninja in a 'proper' open fight, but in the same token a genin could easily beat a skilled swordsman in a fight if there were no rules against trickery. Shikamaru wasn't searching for the ninja guard, he knew that Sakura knew he was there. She took all of her jobs seriously and often kept hidden even when it wasn't necessary. As a consequence the unnaturally strong girl only appeared next to Shikamaru when he had turned a corner and was out of sight of the door.

Shikamaru thought for the first time about trying to keep Naruto's secret. He was sure that Sakura would have known, especially since she had been on his team since they started their career, but the law came to mind. He had also concluded that Hinata likely knew because she was so close to Naruto, but if Naruto reacted like he did about just telling him, how scared would Naruto be about telling someone he was so close to? He now had to consider what he told Sakura and Hinata. "Naruto is sleeping on the roof. In your rounds will you wake him up at zero-three-thirty? He has a fight outside the city gates at zero-four-hundred. The leader of the palace ninja doesn't trust Naruto or his strength because he is a genin. They won't accept my offer unless he proves himself. They are concerned about him because of the law concerning him." Shikamaru wanted to find out what Sakura knew without giving away any information.

Sakura's reply was a thoughtful face as she lowered her head slightly to think. "Have you talked with Naruto about why they hold a grudge against him or about this law?" Sakura didn't know if she should be the one to tell Shikamaru but he would need to know if it concerned the mission.

That confirmed that Sakura knew. Her reply wasn't a question about the law itself like his had been, it was more about what he had done after finding out about its existence. She was concerned about how he went about gathering the information, or who told him, not confusion about what law he was referring to. "Naruto told me. He knows what is going on with the missing ninja guarding the palace. Does Hinata know as well?" Shikamaru's tone wasn't accusing or sad. He understood why the secret was kept. But for right now he needed information to make his decisions, not emotion.

"She has known since Naruto's last birthday. Neji is the only other one from our generation that knows. Every one who was old enough sixteen years ago knows as well. That is why Naruto has always been treated poorly by the villagers." Sakura was saddened at the thought of how the villagers had treated Naruto. He always looked like he took it in stride. With that happy-go-lucky smile and attitude he always had. He didn't even really care about the vandalism done to his apartment. That incident had only been a couple of days ago and he didn't even get a proper chance to clean and get his apartment back in order.

"I'll be relieving you. Wake me up when your watch is over and I'll take over. Naruto will be tired after his fight."

Sakura's only reply to that was a slight acknowledgement in the affirmative. Shikamaru left as Sakura was about to start her patrol again. Shikamaru found a suitable room occupied by three of Shiro's servants and lay on the ground for some sleep. His last thought was that the night's mood had dropped drastically from the contentment they had been enjoying before the party. Now they were all somewhat crestfallen and this mission just got even more complicated and troublesome.

Author's Note

Thanx again to Crystlshake for reading this chapter and helping me with the flow and wording of it. I have finals coming up so I don't know if I'll be able to get chapter 6 up before next year. Hope you have fun reading and have fun over the break in school.


	6. Fun Begins

Chapter 6

The Fun Begins

Naruto stood just off of the road that entered the main entrance to the city. He was only a couple hundred yards outside the city, but he knew the fight was between ninja and should be kept away from prying eyes. The city guards would have a hard time seeing that far at night, and he was planning on actually fighting in the clearing where the woods would block the view of the guards. He didn't worry about people on the road because there were none, and probably wouldn't be for at least an hour. The clearing to his right was the closest clearing that had suitable size. His opponent would have the advantage because he would know the terrain, but that wasn't on Naruto's mind.

He had woken up a half hour ago when Sakura told him it was time for him to get moving. His shadow clone hadn't warned him of her presence because she was a ninja of the Leaf and her skill at stealth was better than most. She had seemed worried when she woke him up. She had taken a minute to reiterate that these were semi-Leaf ninja but that didn't mean they were completely allies either. Naruto's first thought was that they were probably like the rest of their village and hated him beyond anything for what the Kyuubi had done. He had left quickly without thinking too much about the fact that there would be no one else there to watch. It was a slightly unnerving to know that if he lost, he would be left to deal with his own wounds while his opponent would have backup.

Now, however, he focused his attention on the two older ninja that appeared across the road. Naruto guessed that the leader was the slightly shorter man. He had age and probably experience on his side. He was wearing dark clothes and a flack jacket. His forehead protector displayed the emblem of the leaf. It lacked the telltale slash across the symbol that the Akatsuki liked to have on their village insignia, but Naruto knew that wasn't something all missing ninja did. Most missing ninja simply removed their forehead protector so they couldn't be tracked as easily by hunter ninja. His subordinate stood to the side and just behind. He wore a dark cloak with a hood. Naruto identified it as a typical ANBU cloak. Though the missing ninja lacked the animalistic mask, this guy was obviously ex-ANBU.

Due to his experience with the Sound attack ANBU and some of the defensive ANBU of his native village; Naruto knew the cloak held a purpose. Attack ANBU were generally used for offensive purposes; they traveled light with the typical light armor of an ANBU, which could be more effective than the flack jacket worn by other ninja. The armor concentrated on the vital areas more likely to be attacked and kept movement free allowing its user to be used much more agile and faster than the typical chuunin or jounin. Their weapons were generally the standard light weapons other ninja used. Some also carried more personalized weapons such as short swords or odd weapons that were custom made for their own attack style. They didn't carry supply packs with them; they were trained to survive for as long as needed without it. The emphasis was on speed and stealth. They all wore the distinctive mask unique to ANBU though. Naruto had come in contact with attack ANBU a few times when Sound assissins were sent after Jiraiya or himself. Jiraiya had initially taken care of most of the threats until later in his training when Naruto was able to carry his own weight in repelling an attack.

Naruto's experience with the cloaked ANBU, who focused more on defense, came from his days as a prankster and when the Sound invaded. The ANBU wore masks to hide as much as they could. The cloak was an extension of this. It provided enough cover to prevent an enemy from even knowing his opponent's gender. Defensive ANBU rarely talked, they preferred to communicate silently with each other. Again this was part of the scheme designed to keep as much hidden and secret as possible. The cloak was light weight and usually held a spare weapon or two. Many were customized and could be used as weapons themselves. Defensive ANBU were not as concerned with speed or weight as attack ANBU were, but most villages easily interchanged members from one division to another with few problems. Naruto also knew that when one got used to it, the cloak could be much more an advantage than a hindrance. The cloak did limit one's movements slightly when the speed of battle increased beyond a certain point. But the cloak could be used to hide what weapon one was about to use or the hand seals one was making. In fact, to those who knew how to use it, the cloak was valueable just for its ability to hide the little things which made up for its minor restrictions on movement.

Naruto decided that this was going to be a difficult fight, one that would require some small sense of a real plan. That type of fighting didn't suit him though. He was a think-on-your-feet kind of guy. Strategies and tactics were for Shikamaru. Besides, there was nothing Naruto could do to plan without any information about his opponent other than their gender.

The man that Naruto had presumed was the leader stepped forward to address him. "You chose a good location for this. An open area to see your opponent where terrain won't hinder or aid either participant much, yet it has cover a within a reasonable distance. That shows that you understand your opponent has the advantage. I will be the judge for this. When I say it is over, it is over. Not before, not after. I will make my decision whether to accept your squad leader's offer after that. My decision on that will be final." Naruto had the vague sense that this man had grown up with Sarutobi Asuma. His voice sounded like he had been smoking for years.

Naruto simply nodded and shifted his gaze back to his opponent. The judge, whom Naruto thought would be biased because of the way he worded the terms of the fight, moved behind his subordinate. Then, two things happened at once. The first: his opponent seemed to disappear, but Naruto knew better. He was an ANBU after all and probably prided himself on his speed. The second: "Begin," it was so soft Naruto almost thought he imagined it. He had probably only heard it because of his heightened hearing the fox's chakra had given him by messing with his body during puberty.

Naruto knew better than to be a remain stationary. He jumped to the right and out of the way just as a blade of a small sword missed his head. Next, Naruto sent a small amount of the Kyuubi's chakra to his eyes. Naruto had been practicing on controlling specifically which chakra he was using, his or the demons, he hadn't perfected it yet but was making steady progress. He caught only a flicker of movement before the cloaked figure disappeared again. This surprised Naruto, normally people weren't fast enough to fool his eyes. It was night so he could understand missing something with his regular eyes, but with the cat-like slits for pupils the demon fox's chakra gave him the darkness should had little affect on his vision.

This time Naruto instinctively ducked and turned in one fluid motion. At the same time he removed a kunai with his right hand and brought it up in a quick slash. The strike was aimed at a target behind him that he didn't have time to see. Naruto had struck out behind him, the most likely location for a hidden opponent to attack from. Naruto was lucky, his opponent had attacked from behind again. This time instead of just a straight jab, his attempt had been a slash at about neck level, which Naruto had ducked under. Unfortunately though, Naruto's kunai was only able to create a small cut diagonally across the front of the man's cloak. Before Naruto could follow up his attack with a more penetrating one opponent disappeared again. Naruto noticed two things on this attack though.

One was that the man knew exactly how to use the cloak. His face was the only thing visible for longer than absolutely necessary. The weapon his opponent used had exited the cloak, swiped at Naruto, and reentered concealment in only the time it took for Naruto to just swing once. There was no delay in it. The other thing that Naruto noticed was a shift in the cloak just below the cut, almost like a bulge at the man's stomach. The cut in the cloak meant that the cloak couldn't flow fluidly like it usually did, something had moved the cloak from inside. Then he figured it out. His opponent was using the short range teleportation jutsu favored by the ANBU. Naruto had never seen it used in battle because it was generally a slower technique than the alternatives. Ninjutsu by nature was slower than taijutsu, but the series of necessary hand seals made this one was much slower than the replacement technique, so most didn't see a real application for it in battle. This guy specialized in it and was using the cloak to hide the seals to make it seem like he was really disappearing.

This whole line of thought took just over a second, which in a fast passed battle such as this is a second too long to be thinking about anything. Naruto was never good at concentrating, but his style of combat had always relied on 'thinking' in the middle of combat. He was locked in a speed battle. His opponent would disappear and attack from an unprotected angle. Naruto would dodge, block, or attack trying to predict where the next attack would come from. At the moment Naruto was loosing. He had only been able to make a few more superficial cuts to the cloak while his enemy had landed more than one solid hit with multiple types of weapons: shuriken, kunai, and that short sword he apparently preferred.

Naruto had not been standing in one spot, but with the guy using the technique the way he was, he might have well been anchored down. Naruto gave a quick glance at the 'judge', he had a definite smirk on his face. He was enjoying watching Naruto slowly loose. It occurred to Naruto that his opponent was toying with him, but that just meant he was an idiot, underestimating one's opponent and giving them time to act was one of the worst mistakes a ninja could make. Especially since it was often mistakes that won or lost a ninja battle. Ninja fights were fast and deadly, not fun and drawn out. Well, maybe they were fun, but that was if you liked that kind of stuff. Naruto definitely did.

Currently his opponent seemed to be taking a break, or thinking over his strategy. Naruto was given a few seconds to drop fully into his defensive stance without the obnoxious interruptions of an attack. The warm liquid slowly creeping down his left shoulder, right forearm, and his left leg told Naruto his opponent's attacks had not been as futile as his own attempts at causing an injury. He had just been able to stitch the back of his jacket together earlier that night. He would have to sew all of these back up too. He hadn't had a chance to wash out the previous blood stain, so he didn't really mind that his blood soaking into the orange material.

The ex ANBU chose to strike again, but he had delayed just long enough for Naruto to come up with a plan. Naruto waited for the next attack to come, defended against it, and as soon as his 'enemy' disappeared again he created seven shadow clones all in a circle around him. They were about two arm's lengths away, just out of striking range from the original, but that was where Naruto wanted them. And right on cue Naruto felt the presence of the cloaked man to his side. Naruto blocked the attack, but just barely. His clone on that side swiped at the ninja. His reward was only a small slice in the cloak again and a swift kick relieving him of his existence.

Immediately on the retreat of the opponent Naruto's clones shifted so they were each equidistant from each other and forming a circle around Naruto again. The same thing happened again, but this time it was on Naruto's left and just behind him. Naruto blocked, the clone attacked, only got a piece of the cloak, and then got removed from the match. This whole occurrence happened within half a second, the ninja was there, gone, and back in just over a second. Naruto had very little time to react and prepare for the next attack. His clones were disappearing rapidly. Until finally he was alone with his opponent in the night with just the 'judge' as company.

That was when it ended, or at least his opponent realized his mistake. When the last shadow clone disappeared the missing ninja decided to let up again. Naruto guessed he was running low on chakra, a ninja who attacked like this most likely didn't have much stamina. Short quick jabs and retreats meant he liked to rest and was generally poor when he needed to fight for longer than normal. Naruto was good at stamina, he didn't even feel tired yet, though the light wounds he had accumulated were slowing him down slightly.

Naruto had been straining his ears and eyes for any sign of the incoming attack. He was warned by the soft 'puff' of displaced air just behind and to his right. He spun, whipping his arm around with a kunai, in a wide horizontal slash. The missing ANBU was caught off guard by the speed of the attack and had to dodge or loose the blood in his jugular the kunai. The speed of Naruto's opponent was too much for him to overcome. The kunai harmlessly bit a piece of the neckline from the cloak.

Naruto's opponent smiled, all this time the 'all powerful fox' had been able to damage only his cloak. Just as his arrogance and pride filled his head, his shield decided to fall from his shoulders. The cloak, which had been receiving small randomly placed cuts throughout the whole engagement, had actually been the target of Naruto's attacks. The cuts were placed exactly where they were needed so the last strike would remove it from his opponent. Naruto had remembered something Jiraiya had taught him on his travels. "Ninja should rarely attack outright. The true art of a shinobi is to trick one's opponent. Attacking something in a way they do not expect opens holes and allows for an easy kill."

The most powerful ninja could be taken down by a genin if that genin knew where to strike and how. Power was a tool, if relied on too heavily it could be beaten by one of the many other tools available to a ninja. Power was useful, but by no means was it to be the sole weapon. Naruto's opponent had expected him to use only power, but Naruto chose to display his uncanny ability to come up with a good plan in the middle of battle in a matter of seconds. His first real ninja fight had nothing to do with power or speed or strength. It had everything to do with hiding one's intentions.

Zabuza had captured Kakashi in a water prison. Kakashi had told Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto to run. But Sasuke had pointed out that they would be found and killed easily later if they did. They had to free Kakashi. Naruto had come up with the plan to secretly transform into a large windmill shuriken and have Sasuke throw him and another one, hiding the Naruto-shuriken with the real one, at the real Zabuza instead of the water clone. The plan worked since the real one was caught while the Naruto-shuriken was avoided. But just after passing Zabuza, Naruto transformed back and threw a kunai at Zabuza forcing him to dodge away from the prison and releasing the technique and its affects on Kakashi. Zabuza was tricked and did not see the real plan until Kakashi had been released. The same principle was applied here.

Naruto had attacked the information shield. The cloak hid his opponent's actions, so Naruto removed it. Now it wasn't a hindrance and the battle could be fought fairly. But it was already in Naruto's favor. A ninja of this type preferred secrecy, and relied on it. Just like how the ninja's combat style showed he didn't have much stamina, his equipment indicated he didn't do well in open combat. Naruto was surprised though, the man was wearing only a traditional chuunin flack jacket, not the normal armor of an ANBU, and apparently he hadn't been an ANBU but merely wanted to appear as one. Misinformation was as much a weapon as anything else in the ninja world. He had probably tried to join the organization and was rejected. That was probably one reason for his decision to leave the village and enter the permanent service of the lord of Fire.

The now shaken ninja tried to teleport away again, but this time Naruto was ready, he moved faster than his opponent had expected. His right hand held a resengan that had been formed almost instantly, and thrust it at man's chest. The man had to break from forming the seals for the teleportation technique to catch Naruto's wrist. But it was too late. Just as he caught the wrist he felt a kunai pressed to the soft part of his neck. A second Naruto was standing behind him. The Naruto in front still held the resengan. If he attacked or blocked one, the other would finish him off. He was defeated and he knew it.

Naruto had created an extra clone and hid himself using the technique the Fourth had used that gave him the name "the Yellow Flash". The clone in the center needed to avoid a direct hit at all costs, which is why he concentrated on blocking until there were none of the other clones left. Naruto also knew he had to hide his intentions from the 'judge' in order to keep the fight going until he had proven himself. If the fight ended prematurely, before Naruto could show that he had actually won, the leader of the palace ninja could say he didn't prove himself worthy and deny whatever Shikamaru had requested.

"The fight is over." The voice of the sole spectator sounded loud in the soft quiet of the early morning. Naruto's clone released the let the resengan it was holding dissipate and then allowed itself to be released and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Naruto removed the threatening metal from his foe's throat and placed it back in its proper holster. The fight had only lasted about a minute, but that was still a decent amount time for a ninja battle. The early morning was quiet. The nocturnal animals were bedding down for the day and it was still an hour or two before the morning birds would start to wake up.

"Tousi, go back and get your wounds checked out." Tousi, who Naruto guessed was about twenty-four or twenty-six, just old enough to know the truth about the Kyuubi, jumped off towards the city and vanished. Naruto hadn't known the man's name or rank until the very end of the battle, but now he knew both. Naruto had watched until Tousi was out of sight then he turned to the leader of the band of ninja. He didn't say anything but only waited for the man's assessment.

"I assume you know the truth about your origins, you are the demon fox after all." This man had no reservations about saying what he thought or felt. Naruto felt a slight surge of anger but he held it back. He didn't know if his indifference towards this statement would confirm the man's opinions. "I still do not trust you. You caused the death of many of the families of my subordinates. But you have proven yourself a skilled ninja in spite of your rank. Tell that young chuunin, Shikamaru, to come see me during the welcome party tonight." With that the older ninja disappeared using the same technique Naruto's opponent had been using throughout the fight.

Naruto was left standing with a mixture of emotions. Sadness, anger at the man that just left, relief for having won, happiness for probably getting the deal, but most of all was pain. Pain not from the minor physical wounds that the demon fox's chakra was already starting to heal, but emotional pain from yet another group that thought him noting more than a killer and responsible for the evil overgrown chakra filled fur ball residing in his stomach.

He started back towards the hotel. He moved at a quicker pace than a normal person, but to anyone who knew the human sugar high, they would have said it was little faster than a crawl.

Hinata had been her normal worrisome self as she went to bed that night. She was worried about Naruto because she knew that most of the missing ninja had all left the village before Naruto's return. As such they would not have gotten a chance to learn of his actions. Naruto had been slowly turning the hearts of the villagers since he had become an active ninja. But these would probably still hold their grudge against him as hard as ever. The ninja chosen to fight Naruto would probably be the strongest one the group had to offer, and there would be no holding back. Hinata feared for the object of her affection.

When Naruto had gotten back to the hotel he didn't feel like sleeping. Actually he felt like he should go see Hinata. He knew she would be asleep and he didn't want to wake her, but he just seemed to instinctually find the room she was sleeping in and enter silently. It was about five in the morning, he still had about an hour or two before sunrise. He knew the servants that would be occupying the beds in the room would not be up for a while.

Naruto had opened the window silently and entered. He didn't enter the room fully. He sat on the sill, letting the window stay open. It was a quiet night, but it had gotten slightly chilly outside. The soft breeze pushed the cooling air into the room. Hinata was lying on the floor, near the foot of the beds and closer to the door than the window. He loved they way she looked when she slept. She was peaceful. Her shyness evaporated, her worry left her features, and her skin took on a natural hue when she slept. She was often very pale, but when he was around her it seamed that her face liked to invent new shades of red and pink. She was always soft, but Naruto knew that softness was one of her strengths even in battle. She was fluid in her movements and she could drop anyone before they knew what hit them with just one well placed strike.

Naruto caught a whiff of the scent he hated most. It was blood. Naruto looked down at his leg noticing the small red area where his blood soaked into his pants. He had brought the smell into the room his perfect angel was sleeping. He had never thought he deserved her respect, let alone her love. She did not deserve to be tainted by the blood on the hands of the demon host.

Naruto was also self-conscious about how ratty he looked when he was around her. Most of the time he didn't pay much attention to the state his clothes were in, but around her…he wanted to look at least decent. Naruto took off his jacket and pulled out the small sewing kit he carried for field repairs to his clothing. He started sewing up the holes that testified to all the wounds he had received that night. He had gotten good at making small repairs since his jacket and pants got torn often. But, the blood stains woud bee to be washed out.

Naruto finished making the minor repairs to his jacket as he noticed Hinata's face grimace a little. Naruto knew she was small and wore such a large coat to stave off the cold. The night air that he had allowed in was probably making her cold, especially since she wasn't using a blanket. And without thinking, just like every night they had spent on this mission, Naruto took off his jacket and draped it on the sleeping Hyuuga so she would stay warm. He didn't really need it to keep warm. The Kyuubi's element had been fire and he could be kept warm by making his chakra internally warm him up.

Naruto would need to leave in order to properly take care of the damage to his pants. So, silently he slipped out the window again just as the sky in the east was beginning to brighten with the sun's attempts at creating a beautiful sunrise.

Just as the window closed again Hinat woke up. She had felt oddly comfortable for the last bit of her sleep, but that feeling had left just before. She recognized the sudden change in the ambient threat and woke up in response. Immediately on waking up she had to smile. She barely saw a sliver of orange by the window, and she felt the warm jacket around her shoulders. It still held his warmth but most of all it felt and smelt like he did. Her Naruto was safe and back to fussing over her supposed chills while she slept.

But oddly, she still felt something was wrong. Naruto rarely specifically watched her sleep. The only time he did that was when he needed to have something cheer him up. There was something wrong and Naruto didn't know what it was or he wouldn't have needed something to comfort him. Hinata started to get concerned. The sky told her that the sun would rise in about a half hour, she had gotten enough sleep for the night. She got up and left silently. She left no sign that she had been in the room like she had been trained to do and then went in search of one of her other teammates. They should have seen him and be able to tell her something about what was going on.

Shikamaru had just been woken up by Sakura. It was almost dawn and it was his turn for watch. Sakura had apparently stayed on watch longer in order to give him more time to sleep. She informed him that she hadn't seen Naruto but apparently Hinata was looking for him. The agile Hyuuga was under the belief that Naruto was at least back from his fight. He had been relieved at that information, but it now meant he needed to get the answer. There was no other important information to pass on. Nothing had happened regarding Shiro.

Shikamaru dismissed Sakura to get some much needed sleep, though they both had supposed that Naruto was the one that needed it the most. Shikamaru knew Naruto could handle the lack of sleep. His stamina was one of the boy's greatest strengths. Shikamaru's first act on duty was to perform a quick patrol of the entrances and exits into and out of Shiro's room. After all, a good assassin would be able to enter from multiple entrances, not just the front door. Then again, a _very_ good assassin could waltz right in, kill, and leave through the front door without any troubles. The thought that the girl, at the mere age of fifteen, was a Sound ninja and an assassin briefly passed through his mind. He dismissed it remembering that he and Hinata had made sure the girl was not a ninja before allowing Shiro to be alone with her.

Crossing the roof to get to one of Shiro's walls that was exposed to the outside, Shikamaru spotted Naruto's trademark pants hanging to dry. They were just a little brighter than he remembered, but then again, they didn't have the blood stain from the attack Naruto had taken from the sound ninja. Naruto must have washed them when he got back. But then, where was he, and where was his coat? After patrolling and making sure all the entrances were secure, Shikamaru checked inside the room Shiro was occupying.

He was not noticed, he entered silently through an outside window. He was a master of shadows, even more so than most ninja. He moved using the shadows as a cloak. He checked every part of the room quickly and left without Shiro, his young 'companion', or his personal body guards aware that he had even entered the room. Afterward Shikamaru took up a post that could watch most of the entrances from one point, but he didn't stay in one place for long. He would be too much of a target if he did that, and he would leave the other entrances unguarded for too long.

Hinata had found Shikamaru shortly after his first patrol and asked him about Naruto. The intelligent shadow user told her about the trouble he had last night in dealing with the leader of the palace ninja. He specifically told her that their problem had been only when he mentioned Naruto and that Naruto would have to prove himself. Hinata had understood that Shikamaru hadn't gotten the arrangement he wanted the night before. But Shikamaru failed to mention any of the specifics on their way back to the hotel. Hinata was more worried now. Naruto had been in a fight, and he had received some injuries based on the blood stains and stitching in his jacket.

Hinata looked at her stoic team leader and saw a slight hint of concern on his normally calm and thoughtful face. He hadn't heard back from Naruto since he had gone to fight. He was concerned about the safety of his friend but he also needed any information Naruto could give him about his opponent and what the leader's decision had been. Shikamaru gave the graceful girl a knowing look and nodded. It was a silent agreement for her to find him.

Hinata understood the slight nod and disappeared from view with a speed Shikamaru didn't know she had. After a very brief search with her Byakugan she found him on the roof. The sun was just rising as she got to her love. He was now wearing his pants again. But Hinata hadn't known he took them off. She did notice the repairs Naruto had done to them though. It seemed to her that his whole body had received an equal share of the injuries, not just his torso and arms.

Instinctively Hinata started to pull out her ointment. She had learned how to make the homemade remedy from her mother when she was younger. That was one of the things that first gave her an interest in medical techniques. Now though she was just glad she could help her friends with the accelerating and scar reducing effects it had on their healing. She saw many places on Naruto's exposed upper body that could use it. Though, she had to admit he was already healing from the wounds he had sustained.

Naruto had been wearing a protective shirt under his jacket like he always did. The shirt had some holes in it to allow it to breath. But it generally covered the shoulders, neck and torso. So to one unfamiliar with the garment, it would look rather like a t-shirt. The cuts and slashes in it told Hinata all she needed. He would need to use the cream that was in the jar she was already opening up for him.

Naruto's back had been turned to the direction that Hinata approached from. He tensed as soon as he felt the presence of someone skilled in the art of stealth, but after Hinata took a few steps toward him he fully relaxed. Naruto had been trained by Jiraiya to distinguish many facts by simple things like the sound of one's footsteps or their footprints. Naruto was first able to tell it was a light female from the sound of her landing. But he recognized Hinata's pace and footsteps as she approachedhim.

Naruto turned towards the pale purple eyed girl he knew he would give anything for, including his life. Living for something is much harder to do than dying. Dying is a single act, living requires strength to continue, Naruto was willing to fight and die for each of his precious people, but this one, he was devoted to making sure he lived for. He had never really been able to tell her how he felt, he hoped his love for her showed through his actions. He admired the girl that always helped pull him out of his sadness. He wore his mask well, but she had seen him without it on his birthday and spoke with him. In return he had given her a necklace, which she still wore, on her birthday and worked up the courage to kiss the shy girl effectively starting their relationship.

Now he saw concern in the eyes that seemed to see everything. She had was already holding a jar of her ointment and opening it, preparing to put it on him. He made no real protest but was surprised at her next action. Hinata had opened the jar as she got closer, but couldn't contain herself as she closed the last few feet between them. She latched onto Naruto before he knew she wanted to hold him, or realistically be held by him. He instinctively brought up his hands and embraced the worried girl that was hugging him like he would disappear if she didn't.

Hinata hadn't known she was so worried about him. The last time he had fought on this mission without backup he had come close to dying. So close that she had been worried she wouldn't be able to close the wound and save his life. He had come close to bleeding to death. This time, like the last, she hadn't known about the fight until after it was over. She knew he was safe, but she was still worried for him until just now, when all of her emotions seemed to come out in a rush. She needed to hold him, and be comforted by his arms gently wrapping around her protectively. For all the strength she had gained and the confidence she had built up. She seemed to always need someone, namely Naruto, to go to for support. He always seemed to be able to stand no matter what the problem and always cared, no matter what or who the problem was.

Shyly the midnight blue haired girl pulled back and looked up into the happy face of the slightly taller blonde. Suddenly, remembering that a ninja should be emotionless while on a mission she politely stepped back from the comforting and protecting arms around her. She hated to leave the embrace that she loved, she liked to just be close to him, even if they were just sitting still, being near him was always good. Though, the number one most hyper active ninja in the village would rarely sit still for long.

Naruto recognized when Hinata seemed to find her strength again. He had hoped that she would realize she was always strong, but he did love to hold her. Now though he saw the critical eye of a medical ninja giving him a check up. She was quickly looking at all of the wounds he had gotten from the fight, no matter how minor and evaluating them. After about a minute of close scrutiny, and Naruto being a little antsy at the close attention, she let up. She immediately dipped a finger in the jar to apply some of the cream on his wounds.

"Hinata, you don't need to waste that on me, it would be much better use saving for later use on one of you guys." At this Hinata looked at him with a questioning gaze that had a hint of playful ness in it.

Her gaze seemed to say, "You think we are going to be stupid enough to get hurt?" They both knew that Naruto's fighting style incorperated the Kyuubi's chakra to speed up his healing, rven though it also couldn't be relied on. This fact was never lost on Hinata though. She stated "You can't and shouldn't rely on him to heal you." She had been applying the cream to his arms and almost on contact the already healing wounds seemed to be visibly speeding up and closing, leaving hardly any sign of their previous existence.

Hinata quickly finished with the small cuts on his arms. "Take off your shirt, I need to get the rest." It was an order from a medically trained Hinata, not a perverted girlfriend that made Naruto take off his shirt without hesitation. That fact didn't stop Hinata from blushing profusely at the sight of her beau without a shirt on. She decided to get the ones on his back rather than his chest and stomach first. Most of the cuts and scrapes were shallow, but some seemed to have been deep enough have been caused by a full kunai blade. Hinata could tell that the bladed weapon hadn't been kunai from the width and shape of the wounds though. They still looked like they hurt a lot and Naruto seemed to be moving around without a problem.

After a getting all of the wounds on his back Hinata moved to his front. Naruto stopped her and advised that he should probably get his chest and the rest of his cuts. Especially since she insisted on her face blending in with the red pastels the sun was making behind her. Hinata blushed deeper and acknowledged her embaracement by letting him take the small brown jar then taking a few steps back.

After a few minutes Naruto was done and was already putting his protective shirt back on. Hinata had made it a point to not look directly at him while he was applying the ointment. She had slipped into a slight reverie when she started to think about all the times Naruto had fought and she felt for him. But ever since she saw him in his own trashed apartment a few days ago she has seen him with a new light. She saw the pain he was always able to hide. He was able to hide his true pain even from her. She had watched him for longer than anyone and she had never seen through the happy mask he wore until recently.

A soft hand on her shoulder brought her back from remembering the pain she saw in his eyes. She looked at his eyes now and only saw a shadow of it reflected there. He was smiling in his normally happy go lucky manner and telling her that her medicine was working great in a very loud manner. She wanted to say something to him for making her worry, but she knew he wouldn't understand. Besides he had already been back before she knew he was in danger. Then she saw something shift in his eyes, he was looking at her quizzically as if he was a little embarrassed and confused.

"Hinata? Is there something wrong?" She hadn't realized she was staring at him again. He had obviously been standing there for longer than his attention deficient mind could stand before he asked. She was still holding his jacket and he was offering to take it back so she didn't have to hold it. He looked at her with a look she couldn't really read as she handed him his bright orange jacket. He had lost the confused look but he still faintly held onto the embarrassed one. She couldn't understand why he would be embarrassed when he was only with her. His eyes held something; they had lost all their pain, all their sorrow; now they showed something different. She never recalled being looked at like that. It reminded her of the way her mother used to look at her when she was very young.

The Hyuuga prided themselves on being able to see more than others could see. Being more perceptive with both their regular sight and their Byakugan. Consequently Hinata had learned how to determine emotions from a person'sfacial expressions, even if they were trying to hide them. It was almost easier when they tried to wear a metaphorical mask than when they didn't because she almost never saw a true expression. The eyes almost always told a person's real fealings. Now though she was confused.

She let herself be led off the roof and down to a small restaurant/bar to get a quick and cheap breakfast. She was able to pull herself away from thinking too deeply about Naruto so she could properly enjoy the time she had with him. As their food was served she remembered all of a sudden that she was to tell Naruto to go see Shikamaru and give a report about last night as soon as he could.

Naruto agreed to do as he was ordered but secretly planned to take as long as he could with the first person he had told without any other reason than to just tell her.

Shikamaru noticed that Naruto had taken his time with Hinata when he arrived a few hours later. It was only about eight in the morning but, Shikamaru had only gotten a few hours sleep and this evening would be interesting. As with all formal weddings there were parties surrounding it, tonight was the eve of the wedding, so it was going to be an interesting party. The tired team leader looked at his overly happy and hyper subordinate.

Shikamaru made note of Naruto's mood only briefly. It had seemed Naruto had been sad the last couple of days but he trusted Naruto to not let it affect the mission. He had apparently grown more mature over the course of his training and new how to act in a given situation. Naruto was normally happy, so he was back to his normal self. "What did the leader of the palace ninja say?" It wasn't a question about the fight. They both knew the outcome of the battle from the shear fact that Naruto was standing right in front of him.

Naruto told him that the leader wanted to talk to Shikamaru later that night. The placement of the meeting and the fact that he didn't want to tell Naruto meant that the man was probably going to agree but still distrusted Naruto. Shikamaru brushed that thought away as he ordered Naruto to take his shift at watch. Sakura and Hinata would be helping, but it was primarily his watch…and command. Shikamaru was going to need the rest of the sleep he should have gotten last night.

Naruto enthusiastically acknowledged the order and immediately left. Shikamaru sighed and went to catch a few more hours of sleep.

It was a pretty slow day. Shiro didn't feel the need to leave his suite as the newly arriving guests came to meet him. He had invited the ones he knew about to come see him and his servants informed him of any others that arrived. There was much political dealing, though Naruto caught the distinct impression that the meetings were supposed to be secret. However the fact that Naruto moved so he couldn't be detected left the participants unaffected.

Shikamaru had woken up again at about lunch time and the team ate lunch in pairs, two ate and two watched, then the pairs switched. Shikamaru ordered Sakura and Hinata to catch as much sleep as they could before the party. They would all need to be on watch at night until they left the city again. It was easier to assassinate at night than in the day anyway. Shikamaru didn't think Naruto would be able to sleep and thus didn't order him to try. Shikamaru himself only took a small siesta, while Naruto kept watch, and then helped guard the pompous politician.

It was getting late when the four man team got back together again. It was about a half hour before Shikamaru and Sakura would head to the palace to meet with the palace ninja. Hinata and Naruto would take the last day shift as Shiro was about to leave for the palace himself. He was in his room 'getting pampered,' as Naruto described it, while Shikamaru laid out the protective plan to his subordinates. He had gotten a pretty decent view of the lay out of the palace and would be able to position the rest of the team where it would be best suited for completing the mission and returning their client's 'goods'.

Shikamaru quickly finished his explanation of how he was positioning the team and then asked for questions. It was sometimes hard to determine exactly where to go just by a description. Then there was one other thing to take care of. "As you all know, this mission has taken on some complications because of the palace ninja. Is there anything any of you want to say or ask?" It was true. The mission had become much more complicated because of the way the palace ninja felt about Naruto. He also opened the floor for questions because having a team member that didn't know all that was going on could mean that the team member made a snap decision based on imperfect information, and thus hurt the chances of a successful mission.

No one seemed to want to say anything so Shikamaru decided he should at least say what might be misinterpreted. "Ok, I know the truth about how the Fourth defeated the Kyuubi. I know that is why the villagers hold a grudge against Naruto. I suspect as well that the palace ninja hold the same grudge against Naruto…for false reasons." The last bit was added to make sure the other three members knew he didn't hold the same grudge against Naruto. "I am going early to finalize a deal with them so we can get some rest while the parties and ceremonies are going on and Nami Shiro is already being guarded." Shikamaru was pretty sure that everyone knew the last part, but there could be confusion on some of the finer details.

After a slight pause Shikamaru noticed the expressions on his teammates' faces were not sullen or confused but slightly hopeful and ready. They seemed ready to do what Shikamaru would ask and what the mission would require. "Ok, Sakura and I will be going then." The strategist and the medical specialist disappeared, the other two knew they were headed for the palace as they themselves disappeared from the spot they had just been occupying.

Hinata and Naruto usually didn't go on missions together. The last two were odd exceptions where teams were split up. Shiro and Kiba had been needed for a special tracking mission and would be gone for a while. Ino was needed in a special mission for information gathering without letting the victims know it had been gathered, which was her clan's specialty. That had left Hinata without a team, and Chouji and Shikamaru without a third member. The Hokage had decided to let Chouji sit the last mission out because of an injury he had received during training. This mission seemed to have come up quickly though and the team was just expanded onto from the last mission.

The two worked extremely well together for a pair that didn't collaborate on missions much. Hinata seemed to flow right into the shadows and watch the long distance while Naruto made sure to move with and against the shadows enough to go unnoticed. If one moved too well in the shadows, then a person would realize something was off and be put on the defensive. There was not much to do that they hadn't already been doing, but the patrol sweeps took less time and could be done twice as frequently with the two working together. It had only been a small amount of time since their leader had left until Shiro decided to leave.

Naruto knew that Sakura and Shikamaru were already at the palace and taking care of the palace ninja, but he couldn't help the bad feeling he had in his gut. And in the ninja world, a bad feeling shouldn't be ignored. Most of the time, especially if the enemy was skilled, a 'feeling' was all the warning one got before an attack. It was still daylight, and would be for a few more hours, but Shiro was already heading to the palace for a dinner and party to honor the wedding the palace was going to hold the next day. Naruto had opted to be the one down on the street, though he preferred to blend as a regular person rather than disguise himself as a servant. That left Hinata to follow on the rooftops and scan for enemies with her Byakuugan. Hinata kept hidden from view to make sure no one, not even one looking for her saw her. Naruto knew she was there, but during his trip to the palace he never saw her until Shiro was about to enter the gates.

Naurto didn't change his clothes, keeping the bright orange outfit, but it was a basic skill to hide in a crowd. A ninja could move in plain sight quickly through a crowd without anyone noticing them. It just took skill to move in the same manner the crowd did while moving at the necessary speed and in the desired direction without drawing attention. Naruto couldn't use his heightened sense of smell or hearing because the noises from the city covered over any sounds that he would recognize as threatening and the smells of the restaurants and other people masked any smell that a ninja would allow themselves to give off. It was the faint that was threatening to a ninja. The loud and obvious were easily avoidable, it was the quiet that went unnoticed that got them killed.

Shiro was just about to enter through the gates when Naruto left his street level position in favor of a higher vantage point. He was on the roof of the building across the street when he barely detected the presence of a ninja behind him. Judging from the faint sound he had hardly been able to distinguish from the sounds of the city her feet had made he was able to judge her gender, approximate weight, and her speed when she landed. From this, Naruto knew it was Hinata. But immediately after he relaxed he had to stiffen again. He felt the presence of three other shinobi, and Hinata must have felt or saw them too because he heard her shift into what he guessed was a defensive stance. They were positioned well. One was behind the pair with companions flanking the position Naruto and Hinata shared. They were either very, very weak, or not concerned about masking their presence to the couple they surrounded. Naruto guessed it was the latter.

Naruto didn't visibly react to the fact that they were surrounded, but Hinata knew that he was aware of the other group's presence because he hadn't turned around, or even shifted his eyes from watching Shiro present his identification as he gained access to the well guarded Palace. She hadn't deactivated her Byakuugan so she knew exactly where each one was, but they didn't seem to be concerned about hiding their positions. That meant they were either there to watch them and make sure she and Naruto didn't do anything wrong, or they were there as a distraction for a more stealthy ninja to attack. Hinata didn't like the implications of the second possibility, but she had to keep on the lookout against that chance.

"Kunoichi, you stay and watch your client. We are to take the demon to our leader." It was obvious these were the palace ninja now, and that they knew that Konoha laws did not apply to them. Or, at least they didn't think they did. Hinata wanted to protest, she wanted to fight back by telling them that Naruto was no demon and he wouldn't kill someone from Konoha. But she knew that wouldn't convince them. Her internal struggle just looked like a lack of confidence to the former Leaf shinobi. Naruto knew better though and turned around to reassure her.

"I'll be fine, just make sure the prick doesn't get himself killed, Sakura and Shikamaru should already be inside and able to help once you get there." The simple statement helped ease Hinata's apprehension. Her face and stance shifted back from her shy, insecure one to one of serenity. Naruto knew it had nothing to do with guarding the affluent asshole, but more with her worry for him. He made the statement to calm Hinata, but it had the added bonus of making the 'allied' ninja assume she was nervous about guarding Shiro rather than himself. Naruto wasn't manipulative and hadn't planed on that additional benefit though.

When he turned back to the palace one of the ninja jumped off towards the large building to lead the way, while the other two stayed back to keep an eye on the unruly blonde. The four sped off leaving little trace that they had even been in the area, except for the dark haired girl looking in the direction they had gone.

Hinata still had her Byakuugan activated and had been using it to keep track of Shiro during the short confrontation and now used it to focus on his position and move into the Fire Palace.

The dinner portion of the gathering had gone without any problems. Sakura had contacted Hinata a few minutes after making it inside the palace and the pair had kept watch while the 'two boys' were finalizing the deal. The dancing had been going on for about an hour and a few of the newly formed couples were out on the balconies looking at the pastels the retreating sun formed across the sky. Shikamaru made his presence known to Sakura and Hinata and informed them that Naruto and another of their team would need to help guard the perimeter of the palace. Those were the terms of the deal that had been worked out. The palace leader had wanted it to be 'the Hyuuga' but understood that specifying two of the team members for a given duty would have offered little flexibility or courtesy to the visiting shinobi. As it was though, Hinata wanted to be outside, with Naruto even if she couldn't show or act on her feelings in that environment.

Shikamaru knew that the real reason Naruto had been specified on outside patrol and Hinata only 'requested' was because the palace leader didn't trust Naruto at all. He would be easier to watch while outside and it would be more difficult for Naruto to get to the nobles without confronting other Ninja.

The party had been going very well for the last few hours. There were only one or two couples on the balconies seeking privacy. It was getting late and a few of the older Lords had already decided to leave, while the younger ones showed no signs of leaving…unless they were already bringing company back to their hotels. The temperature was dropping a little bit, but none of the ninja guarding the estate were affected and the ninja inside, which Shikamaru and Sakura were part of, never even noticed.

Suddenly Shikamaru heard a soft thud. It sounded like it had come from outside which meant it was probably much louder. He and Sakura also immediately noticed the other ninja in the room racing out through one of the balcony doors with only secondary regard to hiding their presence from the nobles. There was an attack. Immediately the two current Leaf ninja joined the former ones in the race to see who could get outside and help the fastest.

Sakura would be needed, but not for her fighting ability, they both knew that before they had reached the scene, though they didn't yet know to what extent. When they finally reached the courtyard, though it had only been a few seconds since the warning, Sakura realized she wouldn't be fighting in this battle. It took Shikamaru to fully realize the extent of this attack. The war had started.

Author's Note

Well I was able to knock this one out faster than I thought. Plus Crystlshake got this back to me faster than I thought too. I'd like to thank Crystlshake for helping again. The help really contributes to the quality of the story and how it feels. I know I won't be able to write another chapter in this before the break for the holidays and New Year. Have fun with family or doing whatever. As for me I'll be attending my brother's wedding and snowboarding. This story, while longer than my last couple is starting to feel like it is starting to close itself. I'm not sure how many more chapters it will be (at least 2) but I don't plan on making this one run forever and never finishing. I prefer stories with a close rather than just not ending.


	7. Her Realization

Chapter 7

Her Realization p50-55

Naruto was led away by the obvious leader of his 'greeting' party. They had jumped across the road and were heading almost directly into the estate. The leader had bypassed the wall surrounding the courtyard to land on a branch of an old tree, before continuing his quick pace. Naruto, however, had chosen to land on the wall. He hesitated for a second, just enough for the two rear guarding ninja to catch up with him before following the team leader. What the guards following him failed to realize was that his slight hesitation was caused by the creation of a shadow clone. Naruto felt more at ease as the clone fell out of view enroute to Hinata's position. He also knew she would be reassured to know that he had left one on 'Hinata guard duty' as his clones had teasingly christened it.

The ninja surrounding him came to a stop on the other side of the castle. From the looks of the room just inside the balconies overhead, this would be the closest guard spot to where the party would be held. Naruto knew what these three wanted before the leader said anything. He was to be part of their group in guarding this area of the party perimeter. Of course there would be others guarding the perimeter of the estate, but they were easily avoided, after all, the perimeter was large and there weren't enough ninja to effectively guard it and the party at once.

The leader informed Naruto that one of his teammates would be joining them for guard duty, brining their section up to a strength of five. Naruto had half heartedly hoped it would be Hinata just so that he could be closer to her, but he knew he shouldn't show anything but a teammate's care on a mission. The sun set about an hour later, every one of the guards was a little tense during 'magic hour'. Twilight was always the best time to go unseen. The night was great with its cover of darkness, but twilight messed with people's eyes and made it harder to see. The sun set and darkness came without any incident. Most of the ninja that permanently guarded the palace visibly relaxed.

A small time later Hinata landed next to Naruto's concealed look out position. She had a slight smell of the room she just left still lingering on her. It was the party room, a scent which Naruto had noted earlier when the balcony doors had been opened for sunset. Naruto didn't have time to enjoy the presence of the small girl before their team leader for the night showed up and ordered her to the edge of their assigned area. The team's guarding positions were tighter now that they had another member, but the palace guards seemed to be relaxing. Hinata made a slight frown at this. If an attack came while they were like this most of them would die before they even realized what was going on. A few hours later she was proven right.

Hinata had her Byakuugan activated to watch her assigned area, but she had the added bonus of always having Naruto in sight. His presence alone gave her a strength and a confidence that she couldn't duplicate when he wasn't there. She watched Naruto the entire time. She always focused on her assigned area to cover, but with her blood limit she could easily keep the often loud blond in her sight. She noted his jealous look and slight sneer as the youngest member of their new guard team moved closer to talk to her. He was obviously infatuated with her, it was almost a disgrace to Konoha that this boy, only a few years their senior, was showing so much favor for her while on duty. Hinata was polite though, she knew better than to make enemies with a ninja from a group of shinobi not officially allied with the Leaf. Even if that ninja and the group were almost all former Leaf-nin anyway.

Hinata made sure she was polite as she was trained to be from birth. But she was also taught to be quiet and barely said more than a soft "yes" or "no" the entire time the ninja was talking. She hadn't once looked directly at him, she didn't need to with her Byakuugan. She did however pay attention to detail, that was information and information often proved the difference between death and success. She also kept an eye on Naruto, he was getting more and more annoyed the longer the former Leaf-nin stayed near her. Though many would say he wasn't showing anything, Hinata knew him and saw the subtle signs most people would miss. She almost cracked a slight smile at his control. But she knew that would only encourage the boy crouching next to her. She was in love with the man she was focused on, not the boy trying to hide his intentions.

About a half hour later the red haired, brown eyed, tall, weapons user seemed to think he had made enough small talk to start with his real purpose. "Has your father promised your hand to anyone yet?"

It was almost completely tactless. But Hinata knew that the Hyuuga were known to be a 'noble' clan and acted to keep that image. It would be natural for a noble to arrange his daughter's marriage. Hinata could also tell that this boy was most interested in her for her family and her bloodline. He had only seen her maybe twice in the last few days and only been talking to her, not listening or doing his job, for the last half hour. The boy might also be 'stricken by her looks' as Naruto had once worded it, but she doubted it. She never could believe Naruto when he told her that she was beautiful, even when he said it so naturally that she didn't think he even really registered the word. Ino's opinion was that she dressed 'very' modestly, especially when on a mission. So Hinata didn't think that was what brought this boy to her.

"No." It was louder and more forceful than her previous acknowledges to his presence. Hinata also held to the idea that her position was to be concealed and noise could give it way. Hinata did note that this was the second time this mission that she had been indirectly 'threatened', as she thought of it, with an arranged marriage. She knew a shinobi's missions were often dangerous and one could die unexpectedly, so most ninja didn't get involved in relationships or got married very quickly by the rest of the world's standards. She still didn't like the idea that someone else was choosing her husband. And She didn't like the idea that a man would force her into marrying him. Hinata didn't doubt that this boy was a 'ladies' man' to normal girls on his time off. But as Naruto often said it, Hinata was not normal.

The ninja to her right didn't seem to think that about her though. He saw a girl with little confidence in the soft and short answers she had been giving him. He saw no significance even in the more forceful answer she had just given. Any idiot should have been able to hear the force and annoyance in her tone even though it was only audible from the boy's position and no further. "Well I will write to your father in the morning asking for your hand. I will be able to pay any dowry he requires. We get paid much better as palace guards than regular Leaf ninja. And you'll be able to work in my house cooking and cleaning rather than doing a man's wor—"

The boy was never able to finish his sentence. Hinata had allowed herself to be momentarily shocked by the disregard for her will in the matter, but more so by the sudden and simultaneous disappearance of Naruto from view.

Hinata saw the kunai and shuriken just in time. She barely had time to react; starting her clan's chakra spin instinctively in her defense was just barely able to block the incoming messengers of death. The first kunai, which flew straighter and faster than the following shuriken, traced a thin red path in her forearm before she was able to get her chakra out in a defense. She blew her 'teammate' back with the displaced air and chakra in the spin but she didn't have time to think about his comfort. After finishing the defensive technique, she noticed the would be suitor wasn't moving, he was dead. Her next instinct was to focus on the last place she had seen Naruto. His previous position was riddled with kunai and shuriken and there was a Sound shinobi standing a short distance away inspecting the spot. There was no body however.

She looked around and saw many Sound-nin coming over the wall. It looked to be about 25 in total. She couldn't make a perfect count because she was immediately besieged by a trio of the attacking Sound-nin. It looked like all of the inner guard had been killed in the one coordinated attack. All of the former Leaf-nin were dead. There had been sixteen ninja guards outside before the attack. One shinobi was unaccounted for.

Hinata pumped more chakra into her eyes to improve her visibility and subsequently her survivability as well. The strongest of the three jounin attacking her attacked head-on in an attempt to divert the attention from his partners attacking from the sides and behind. One attacked from the closest tree and one from ground level. This time she decided not to use her clan's 'ultimate defense'. Instead she used her grace and finesse in the battle. Her movements were fluid and flowing from one to the next without giving away her next intended attack or dodge. All three of these ninja seemed to prefer taijutsu rather than ninjutsu.

Hinata was kept on the defensive from the trio's coordinated offense though. She was only dodging their attacks by a narrow margin, but that was part of her specific style. Even Gai had admitted that her clan's form of taijutsu was superior to the Lotus style that he and Rock Lee used. Neji had mastered the Jyuuken but his style was still more forceful. Hinata's style was a little bit more flowing and graceful. Neji deflected or dodged an attack by a much greater margin than Hinata ever did. Many inexperienced ninja would think that Neji was the better fighter because of that. Hinata, and Neji for that matter, understood that less movement meant less energy spent and often an opening to attack was to find and exploit when an opponent was close than farther away.

Hinata recognized the smile of over confidence in all three jounins' eyes as she deflected and wove just beyond their reach of their attacks. Then she saw her opening. One quick kick to the side of the knee sending chakra out of her foot as the foot connected. It only takes eight pounds of force to break a knee from the side. When one added the affects of forced chakra on the inner coils system there, the valuable joint was affectively useless for about a year.

Again Hinata was forced to dodge as the stronger jounins finally stopped playing with her. They had been careless and were having fun with the last standing member of the perimeter guard. Hinata, seeing the attack from behind, dipped her left shoulder just enough for the arm holding the kunai to pass her shoulder and neck unhindered by her clothing or flesh. In the same movement she stepped forward and extended her left palm to lightly hit the injured Sound jounin's forehead. The actual impact was like a soft caress. The affects of the chakra were much more devastating. The man died instantly without any pain.

The rest of the attacking ninja were now fuming. A simple chuunin missing-nin had killed one of their strongest taijutsu fighters during their own surprise attack. They had all stopped for some entertainment in watching the little Hyuuga girl die being toyed with. They were randomly placed throughout the inner courtyard after having just entered from killing the rest of the guard teams.

Hinata still had not seen any signs of orange since the attack started. She also knew that he was the only one of the guard not inside at the time of the attack that wasn't lying on the ground…other than her. But the odds did not look good. She twisted slightly again to allow the thrust to miss her side as she lightly pressed a palm to her attacker's bicep. Immediately his arm fell limp and the kunai fell from his hand. She was denied the killing blow as his partner forced her away with his attack. The other ninja were getting incensed now at her ability to avoid death.

Sudnenly she felt the wind from something moving by her body faster than even her enhanced vision could track. The now crippled jounin to her left shot back and away from her into the solid palace wall with an audible crack caused b the marriage of masonry and flesh. His body impacted with the solid wall of the palace. The impact caused the loudest sound created by the fight yet, a dull thud that was just enough to alert the ninja inside of a problem.

The sudden unlikely movement of the injured Sound-nin distracted Hinata's opponent more than it did her and she quickly slipped inside his defenses to place two hand strikes. Her right hand landed against his chest and her left lifted in a slight uppercut hitting just below and behind his chin. The chest shredded all the inner coils surrounding the heart and lungs while the other cut through all of the chakra pathways in his head destroying his brain and nerves there.

Hinata allowed herself to relax just slightly after confirming the shinobi lying at her feet was dead. She had seen an orange clad man with spiky yellow hair standing where the Sound-nin she had just disabled had been less than two seconds before. She now gave a more critical eye to him.

Naruto, though easily dispatching of the injured jounin that was about to attack Hinata in spite of the pain in his arm, had some cuts and scrapes along his arms and shoulders. There was again a slash along his back, but that looked more like it hit his jacket and only barely cut into his flesh. She wondered where he got those injuries if he had disappeared just before the attack. But then she remembered that he had moved slightly forward before he had used the body-flicker technique.

He had seen the attack coming and tried to head some of it off. Apparently he had acquired some injuries for his hasty actions. Naruto turned blood red slitted eyes towards Hinata. She saw he was still in control but the Kyuubi's effects on his body were more pronounced. His canines were longer, his nails on his hands and feet were longer and sharper, and his 'whiskers' were more prominent. "Heh, I'm sorry I'm a little late Hinata-chan. I had to take care of the guy who got me during our trip here."

Hinata visibly relaxed at this. That ninja had been strong, he had told them so. But if he won the young prodigy of Orochimaru was no longer a threat. Sasuke and Kabuto would be the Sound's strongest next to Orochimaru now.

Hinata's raction was a stark contrast to that of the remaining Sound-nin. Apparently that boy had been one of their strongest and they were shocked a mere genin of Konoha could take him down. They were affronted that a chuunin had affectively beaten three of their jounin with little help from a genin, but now they were outraged and slightly apprehensive.

Up until the point of Naruto's appearance, the battle's loudest noise had been the older and heavier jounins' sandals sliding on the hard dirt of the courtyard. Ninja were not soldiers best used in open combat. Their skill and techniques were designed for silent battle and assassination. Stealth was their greatest weapon. They were trained to fight silently. If one made a mistake and was seen or their path was blocked by a guard; they were to take out the obstacle silently and quickly so more couldn't be alerted to their position. To this end almost all shinobi were trained to fight silently and control their reactions to pain. The pain in the arm of the now fallen jounin hadn't even caused more than a slight gasp and silent wince.

Now though, about ten to twelve ninja came pouring out of the room the party was being held in. The nearly inaudible thud caused by Naruto's attack had alerted the ninja inside to an attack. The partiers were still unaware because they were not trained to filter out sounds and hear the slight noise just above the music of the quartet playing for the dancing noblemen.

Hinata noticed the last two out into the courtyard were Sakura and Shikamaru. The former Leaf and current Sound were already starting to engage in battle as the two remaining current Leaf ninja entered the comforting and frightening darkness. There were about two Sound to every one palace ninja. Shikamaru immediately directed Sakura to start helping out medically. Shikamaru also silently directed Hinata to help when she could and keep a lookout for the pink haired medic. They both knew that Sakura often focused solely on her medical duties even in battle and didn't notice attacks being aimed at her.

Hinata sped off towards where Sakura was working and immediately took directions and then started working on the injured ninja. Sakura took an almost dead palace ninja while Hinata tried to heal one that had stab wounds to his chest and arms. There were many already dead and lost causes lying around and many more falling every minute. Hinata kept her Byakugan activated because it helped her see the chakra of her patient and kept an eye out for attacks coming at her or her teammate. She was watching the battle with her extended peripheral vision. The missing Leaf ninja were doing as well as could be expected with the disadvantage of only half the ninja as the attackers. The palace ninja were still going to loose by a lot though..

Shikamaru had already caught three Sound and killed them by closing off their throats with the technique his father had taught him right after he became a chuunin. Immediately thereafter Shikamaru was forced from his offensive by the attacks of three more Sound chuunin and a jounin.

The Sound seemed to work in teams of three, one less than the Leaf preferred. Shikamaru had just barely dodged a frontal attack when he noticed one had held back. Shikamaru had previously noticed that many of the Sound on this mission were weapons and taijutsu specialists. Probably so they could more efficiently and quietly kill the guards without making more than necessary noise. Ninjutsu tended to be a little bit more flashy and loud while genjutsu was slower than ninjutsu and took some time for the illusion to take affect. Shikamaru heard a soft tune just as he defended against another set of thrown shuriken.

Immediately his surroundings changed into a sunny clearing that he recognized as his old genin team's preferred training ground. But instead of Ino and Chouji; Sakura and Naruto were there. It was a genjutsu and the castor must have thought they had been his teammates. Such a blatant but simple mistake. Shikamaru quickly cut off the flow of chakra to his brain for an isntant, dispelling the technique and bringing him back to the real world. Again he was forced to dodge an attack quickly but he was able to catch the attacker in his favorite attack, Shadow Limitation. With a smirk on his face Shikamaru then understood how to beat these three.

Instead of killing the captured one and dealing the the next two, he decided to use him. Shikamaru launched at the genjutsu user while the captured Sound-nin moved off in a different direction going after his own partner. The Sound were caught off guard, they thought once caught, one did the same exact actions as the person who caught them in the technique. Shikamaru wasn't a normal chuunin though, and his clan's best technique was not one that a genin could easily master.

It took a strong mind to affectively use a captured ninja in this way. His clan technique, while not a strong bloodline like Sasuke or Hinata's eyes were, was not passed to anyone outside the clan. Much like Chouji, Ino, Kiba, or Shino's clans weren't bloodlines but clans that specialized and preferred a type of technique. Theoretically anyone could learn those techniques, but without help from inside the clan, or as in Shino's case implantation of bugs in the body during infancy, it was nearly impossible to duplicate.

Naruto had been fairing better than the palace ninja had been, but he was still taking hits. He had created a large number of shadow clones and engaged as many Sound as he could. He had received a few direct hits and more than a few glancing blows from a sword or a kunai though. This alerted the ninja he was fighting as to which one was the real Naruto. During the fighting his opponents had dropped down to about five as he killed or rendered them unconscious. Though his clones had also been reduced to two meaning there were only three Narutos left. There were only one or two other ninja from the palace who had not yet fallen, Naruto noticed both were the ninja he had met the previous night.

Naruto took notice of how skilled Sakura and Hinata were at their trade. A couple of the fallen former Leaf ninja were once again able to join in the fighting. But the few they were able to save and return to fighting capability were not enough. The casualties had happened faster than they could keep up with and many had died without a chance to be saved. Their success was not unnoticed by the Sound-nin though. The original twent-five or so that had attacked were now reduced to about 10, much better than Hinata's original assessment of their chances.

Shikamaru and Naruto, though very protective of their teammates, did not feel the need to stay unnecessarily close to the medical specialists. Hinata's Byakugan could see all around her so she could watch for incoming enemies and both girls could hold their own in any fight. As it was though, the few Sound that thought the medics were more of a threat than the fighting ninja were surprised by the speed at which Hinata shifted just enough for the attack to miss her while she placed a palm to their chest or head. Her strike was very gentle, barely impacting, but the pain and instant death it caused were a sharp contrast to the force of the blows. Sakura on the other hand, usually had little warning more than Hinata's order to look behind her. Sakura's counter to an attacking ninja implemented less grace and finesse.

Sakura turned around at Hinata's warning to see two Sound coming at them. Both were brandishing swords and were about to strike. With speed most wouldn't have suspected of the kunoichi she removed two kunai from her leg holster sending one flying into the chest of one of her attackers. She threw it with such speed and force that the blade penetrated the flack jacket and pierced the man's heart, killing him. The other kunai she used to block the sword coming down at her head. The man was shocked, he was twice her size and yet she blocked the powerful strike with apparent ease. Sakura took advantage of the man's momentary shock to punch him with the strength Tsunade taught her to use. The man was sent flying, almost hitting Naruto as he crossed the courtyard.

That was when the tables turned. There were now six of the Leaf ninja still standing. The Palace leader, Naruto's former opponent though he was tired, Shikamaru, Naruto, Sakura, and Hinata were the only ones still able to fight. There were still about ten of the Sound able to fight. But Kabuto, who had been sitting back and watching from the shadows unnoticed, decided to enter the fight. He took out the two palace ninja quickly by attacking them from behind. He had been watching and had learned their style so it was easy, especially since they didn't expect the attack. Naruto noticed Kabuto just as he killed the last of the remaining Palace ninja.

Naruto got enraged as he saw them fall. Kyuubi's chakra started to wrap around him and from a fox with one tail. Instantly he launched an attack at two of the remaining Sound. His speed, a clawed left hand and a resnengan in his right killed them quickly but not painlessly.

He turned to face Kabuto as the medic ninja smiled and faced him. The other Sound ninja seemed to take that as a hint to back off from the snarling opponent their leader was facing. The seven remaining Sound hesitated and then looked at their mission commander. "Good evening Naruto-kun, Its been a while since we last met. You've gotten stronger, but you have increased your weaknesses. Or at least you consolidated them making them an easier target." Naruto didn't have a clue what Kabuto was talking about.

Then the medic ninja proved he was as good as Kakashi by moving insanely fast towards where the two female ninja had been working on a severly injured missing Leaf nin. Naruto realized he was attacking the girls and they wouldn't be able to react in time. Shikamaru had come to the same conclusion just before Naruto had and sent his shadow to stop Kabuto. Kabuto had expected that though and dodged. Shikamaru was only able to capture three of the Sound-nin who had been close to Kabuto. The ones Shikamaru did not capture moved in front of Naruto, stopping him from using his speed to stop Kabuto.

Naruto immediately launched into the four Sound jounin who had crossed his path. The first one used a sword attack while the other three moved to get into better positions. Naruto automatically formed a resengan in each hand. He dodged the first sword swipe and sent one of his resengans at the chest of the attacker. He was forced to cut the follow up attack short because of the assault from one of the jounin on his right. If Naruto hadn't been in as much of a hurry he would have noticed that the last attack had been a simple hand chop. Kabuto had obviously taught some of these ninja how to create chakra scalpels and how to use them effectively in combat.

Shikamaru killed the three Sound chuunin he had captured with his shadow and moved to help Naruto. He was able to capture two of the surrounding ninja which allowed Naruto to quickly kill them with the resengans he was holding in each hand. Naruto did not release the technique. The small explosion like effect created by that would cause more damage to the opponent as he sunk the ball of chakra into the man's chest, but it would also mean he couldn't use it on the two remaining active jounin. Shikamaru did his best to support Naruto but they proved to take more time than either could spare.

Naruto heard Sakura scream and turned around to see that Kabuto's chakra scalpel had carved an angry red line across Hinata's chest. She was down. Kabuto immediately withdrew from battle but did not retreat completely. He just moved so he could easily disappear while still being able to watch. The other two Sound ninja, all that was left of the attacking forces, joined him standing to either side of him.

Shikamaru and Naruto immediately broke off their attack and moved to their fallen teammate. Naruto was in shock. Shikamaru saw a mixture of rage, fear, and shame on his face. Sakura was already working on the wound, but it looked like afutile attempt even to Shikamaru's inferior medical training. Blood was flowing way too fast. Her ribcage had been cut completely open and some of the internal organs had been damaged. Shikamaru watched silently as Naruto, now with a face that showed fear and unrivaled anger, grip Hinata's hand.

Naruto's eyes were now blood red with slits in them. The chakra that had surrounded him had receded but the animalistic affects of it on his body had not lessened one bit. Naruto's claw like hands were still razor sharp, his teeth and whiskers were still longer and more pronounced. Though Naruto's eyes burned with rage, his face showed fear and shame.

Shikamaru noticed how softly Naruto was still able to hold the quiet girl's hand even with hands that seemed specifically designed to do anything but give a soft carress. Shikamaru quickly looked into Sakura's face and understood. The medic specialist did not think Hinata was going to survive. Shikamaru looked up and then around in a vain hope he could find someone, something to help. What he did notice were the three remaining Sound standing on the estate wall watching with what looked like amusement. He looked back at the palace and noticed something he hadn't expected.

There were five or six Cloud shinobi standing on the balconies or on the roof watching the fight. Their job was to protect their country's officials, not guard anything else. This was a battle between Sound and Leaf. Cloud was not involved. That being said, they were also very interested in the outcome of this battle. Knowing your allies' and enemies' abilities were often key to politics and battle.

Shikamaru also noticed that they had moved the partiers back inside to keep them out of danger. They had done that courtesy at least. Naruto's voice called the shadow user back to the situation that was lying right in front of him.

"You can't die. I can't live without you. I need you to keep me, me. You are what keeps me from letting the monster out. You can't leave me. I need you." Naruto's voice was cracking and soft. There were distinct tones of deep sadness and fury. Though as to whether the barely controlled rage was directed more at Kabuto or himself was uncertain even to Naruto.

Shikamaru had barely heard what Naruto had said it was so soft. But he could definitely tell a tumultuous battle was being waged inside of Naruto. It seemed like that rage, the rage Shikamaru guessed was the Kyuubi was barely being held back. Naruto obviously wanted to attack Kabuto, but he was conflicted with his desire to stay by his love.

Naruto was looking at Hinata's face. But he was also concentrating on the wound Sakura was working on. Even though he paid no attention to Sakura said, the panic and worry tingeing her frantic speech and movements spoke just as clearly. Just then the wound stopped bleeding. With a cut that deep, it did not mean the wound was fixed, it meant the heart had stopped beating.

Immediately Naruto let out a guttural scream of rage and sadness. It was loud and quiet at the same time. For a brief second the world seemed to stop. Then what began as a deep growl erupted into a guttural scream as Narutos wrath and sorrow exploded into a semi physical form. Blood red Chakra seemed to immediately engulf him and form the snarling shape of a fox around him. The furious manifestation started out with two tails and quickly formed a third before Naruto attacked.

Author's Note

This story is coming to a close. The next chapter will be the last for this story, baring some unforeseen event. It has been about a month since I last updated this story, but the holidays were a little busy for me and my last few weeks have been hard. Two weeks ago I separated my AC joint in my right shoulder while snowboarding and last firday my car decided to die. Probably the alternator, but I'll have to wait until my next paycheck before I can pay for a new one and it'll be about another week before I can actually do the work because of my shoulder. All well, life goes on with God's direction. Have fun reading and I'll get the next chapter up when it gets written and betaed by Crystlshake.


	8. His Salvation

Chapter 8

His Salvation

Shikamaru watched in slight horror as Naruto seemed to disappear leaving only a slight red glow in his wake. The feeling in intense killer intent and such a large amount of chakra meant that the Kyuubi was close to the surface. Shikamaru didn't know as Sakura did how dangerous this really was. He trusted Naruto. Instead of looking for the blond demon vessel, he turned back to the still form of the now very pale girl and the frantic movements of his pink haired medical specialist.

Sakura, being a medical specialist and a ninja, was not phased by the 'death' of her patient but only worked more frantically. She knew that if she was fast enough Hinta could be revived and would have no permanent damage. Naruto's condition however, worried her greatly. She had witnessed the horrors of Naruto allowing the Kyuubi's chakra to affect him too much. It looked like he was doing the same thing now.

Sakura then noticed Shikamaru paying close attention to her work and not moving after Naruto like he should have been doing. But, she wasn't about to give their team leader orders on matters she wasn't qualified to supersede his judgment on. Sakura immediately started giving quick but understandable orders to Shikamaru, who obeyed without even the slightest hesitation. In times of combat and other instances, medical personnel can give orders to those around them in order to care for the wounded regardless of rank. It wouldn't matter if the medical-nin was a genin and the defacto nurse was the Hokage, the orders were still to be followed without question.

Shikamaru started removing Hinata's shirt, which was only getting in the way of Sakura working on the deep chest wound. Sakura on the other hand was running through a very fast set of complicated seals. She had a scroll open next to her that was smeared with Hinata's blood. With near perfect synchronization Shikamaru removed the cloth blocking the wound and Sakura finished her hand seals. She quickly completed the jutsu by slamming the scroll down across Hinata's chest.

To Shikamaru it appeared as though the jutsu had accomplished nothing…well, nothing to Hinata anyway. Sakura on the other hand looked exhausted and sweat was starting to form on her 'big forehead'. Sakura was kneeling over the small girl's chest with her hands in the middle of the scroll. The scroll was positioned diagonally across the Hyuuga heiress's torso so that the gap in her ribcage was perfectly centered under it. Sakura's hands were on top of each other in the center of the open scroll. From the position of Sakura's body it looked like most of her weight was being supported by her hands. But looking at Hinata, Sakura's hands barely seemed to make contact.

Then Shikamaru noticed something. Sakura's bottom hand seemed to have a slight pink glow to it. She was pumping chakra directly into Hinata's chest, and from the looks of it, directly into the inner coils system surrounding the girl's heart and lungs. That was inconceivable to Shikamaru. It would take impossibly good chakra control to do that. One would have to perfectly match the amount and 'preasure' of chakra moving through the receiver's inner coils system to do that. If too much was sent, the inner coils system could be damaged in much the same way thy Hyuuga gentle fist style damaged them; if too little was sent, the implanted chakra would block the bodies natural chakra flow, causing more damage. Shikamaru looked up at Sakura, her face was set with concentration, almost emotionless if not for that strong presence of determination.

Shikamaru remembered some of the basic medical field training he had received from the academy. If this wasn't done perfectly right, and withing 2 minutes of her 'death' then she would probably not survive. Well, judging by the loss of blood, she probably wouldn't survive even if Sakura got her heart started again. What felt like an hour since Naruto's loss of control in reality had been barely a minute, but to the three people concerned, it was longer than any of them wanted.

Hinata had been caught by surprise. She had allowed herself to stop focusing on the enemies behind her so she could concentrate on her patient. She knew Shikamaru and Naruto were taking care of the Sound and would protect her and Sakura. Then using her extended peripheral vision that her bloodline granted her, she saw someone moving towards her faster than she could react. She turned to face the incoming ninja and recognized he wasn't wearing a green flack jacket like Shikamaru would or bright orange like Naruto always did. Then just before she started to spin to perform the instinctual kaiten she realized who the attacker was, it was Kabuto. She wasn't fast enough in starting her spin. He had already been close, too close, only a foot away when she starting turning and expelling chakra. As it was, her spin only helped Kabuto's chakra scalpel cut deeper and faster through her exposed chest.

The pain of the slash wasn't as much as she expected it to be, but then again it was the sharp and clean cuts that hurt the least. She immediately lost her balance and started to black out. She didn't loose consciousness though. Not for a long time. She couldn't move, couldn't talk, couldn't open her eyes; all she could do was listen. Listen to her own lungs let air escape through the gaping hole in her chest, and listen to her heart pump blood onto her clothes and friends.

Sakura was immediately by her side. The girl was silent, but she knew it was Sakura because her hands were unwavering and purposeful. She noticed the cool feeling of chakra being sent into her chest to try and start the healing of the wound. She knew it was useless though, she was loosing blood far too quickly and the cut was too deep. She knew the life of a ninja was dangerous and she knew she was bound to die on a mission someday.

Then that whole line of thought died away as if it never existed. Her right hand was much warmer than her left. She then realized it was being held, caressed by someone. It had an odd feel to it, but she knew it was Naruto. She didn't know how, but she knew.

"You can't die. I can't live without you. I need you to keep me, me. You are what keeps me from letting the monster out. You can't leave me. I need you."

Naruto was her strength. Naruto was her example on how to press on even when there was no way she could see that she could carry on. She saw him as someone she loved and looked up to. Someone with flaws and failures but he was a proud failure and would get up and try again. Naruto needed her to live. He couldn't live without her, he saw strength in her and he used her to inspire him to fight his own demons, both literal and figurative. The fact that he needed her so much gave her such a shock that she felt her heart stop. The last thing she felt was a surge of warmth filled with fear, sadness, but most of all was rage.

Shikamaru knew there was nothing really he could do. This level of medical jutsu was way beyond the basic field and first aid skill that he posessed. He quickly looked around assessing the situation. Most of the observing Cloud had disappeared, apparently to watch Naruto and what was left of the Sound finish the battle. The few that remained were either watching Sakura very intently or were starting to inspect the bodies of the dead ninja. Shikamaru noted they were not going near the palace ninja that had come from the Leaf. They were only looking at the Sound casualties and the couple of missing nin that the Lord of fire had hired from other countries. It would be rude to gather info from the dead Leaf bodies while current Leaf were still alive and present.

Shikamaru was pulled away from his slight annoyance at the indifference of the Cloud by the sound of a shallow breath from Hinata. She was breathing, quick shallow breaths, but still breathing. Sakura seemed to slump back in a relieved position before she passed out from chakra exhaustion. The regenerative and reviving jutsu Sakura used takes a lot of chakra to use, and Sakura had already been working on other ninja before Hinata. As Sakura slumped onto her side unconscious, her hands pulled off the scroll, which was all that was covering Hinata's modesty.

Shikamaru saw that there was only a slight soft white mark where the gash in his subordinates chest had been. He glanced around and found a jacket that looked remarkably like Naruto's. He picked it up and put it over Hinata's prone figure to cover her from prying eyes as well as keep her warm. One's body heat drops fast when one looses that much blood, as well as her entire torso was uncovered and radiating heat without any clothes to insulate it. He hadn't noticed that the force of the Kyuubi's chakra had ripped the jacket off of Naruto when he let go of his rage. If Sakura had been at all concerned with it she would have remembered that the Kyuubi's chakra had done the same thing when Naruto was fighting Gaara to save her life during their first chuunin exam.

The first thing Hinata noticed a few minutes later was that she felt tired. But that was to be expected after such a long day and such a fierce fight with the Sound. Then it hit her, she had been injured, and should have died. She looked around. Shikamaru was on one knee checking Sakura and making sure she was ok. Hinata immediately activated her Byakuugan and noticed that Sakura's inner coils system was very low on chakra. Sakura had used too much in healing her. The next thing she noticed was that her upper body was only covered by Naruto's jacket lying across her. She slipped it on and zipped it up while still keeping her form covered.

Then it hit her. Naruto needed her. She somehow knew that that wave of warmth had been him letting go and giving into the Kyuubi's request to give so much rage. Hinata hadn't deactivated her Byakuugan after she checked Sakura. Now she stretched its field of long vision and found Naruto. Without warning and before Shikamaru could say anything to stop her, she got up and sped off towards the now ruined section of the city.

Shikamaru was very worried. He had one subordinate unconscious and would most likely not wake up for a day or two from use of so much chakra. One had just been revived and was now foolishly speeding off to rejoin the fight she had already almost died in, and one had lost his mind when he saw the aforementioned teammate 'die'. He couldn't leave Sakura there, defenseless but he needed to stop Hinata. Reluctantly he decided to let Hinata go to Naruto. Naruto would never harm Hinata. Shikamaru trusted Naruto, Kyuubi and all, not to harm any member of the Leaf, especially the one person Naruto had said he needed. Looking at the Cloud nin, almost so they would confirm that he was doing the right thing, Shikamaru noticed the Cloud that had remained all had slightly shocked and disbelieving looks. A dead Leaf ninja had just gotten up and ran off in the direction of battle. To Shikamaru, that was a slight relief. They would probably not side with Orochimaru if they believed Leaf-nin could come back from the dead.

Hinata's thoughts were on a single subject. Naruto. He had said he needed her. She was the one that kept him from letting the Kyuubi control him. From letting the immense chakra overpower his own and take over. She couldn't allow the one she admired, the one she loved to become the monster the village had believed he was. She loved him too much to loose him. To let him become the sealed demon all of the adults in Konoha believed he was. She had to get to him before she lost him.

She arrived at the decimated area of the forest just outside of the city within a few minutes. She had passed two unrecognizable bodies on her way but she knew they were probably the two Sound that had survived until Kabuto had attacked her. What she found when she arrived was Naruto, or more accurately a miniature red demon fox with four very long tails instead of nine. He was standing, or crouching, on all fours about fifteen yards away from Kabuto.

Kabuto himself, definitely looked looked much worse for the wear. His left arm hung at his side, and judging by the ruined flesh of his bicep, it was probably useless. The rest of his body was fairing only marginally better, laced with numerous large cuts and claw marks. His right leg looked like it had a nasty bite in the calf, showing Naruto's now more animalistic like nature to use biting as an attack. Kabuto must have swallowed a pill to improve blood clotting because it didn't look like any of his wounds were actively bleeding, though blood was everywhere.

Hinata looked at Naruto and realized a fifth tail was forming and the fox was getting more and more defined, though he did look to be in pain. Then she noticed something of far greater importance. Blood was pooling under Naruto. The Kyuubi's chakra was hurting him and causing him to bleed almost everywhere. The tears that had been forming in her eyes since she had started to run after Naruto now came full force. She knew it was wrong for a shinobi to show emotion on a mission, but she loved Naruto and would not let him go without a fight.

She raced towards the two figures. She didn't think she would make it in time for Naruto to form the fifth tail and attack, but she was never going to give up. Not on Naruto.

Naruto formed the fifth tail and charged Kabuto. Just as he was in range to attack he felt something hit him from the side and hold on. Whatever it was, it delayed him in his attack and his prey escaped because of it. It was going to pay. He hadn't noticed whatever IT was because it was masked by his own scent. It was wearing his jacket and covering its scent with his own. He turned to snap at it, bite it, and claw it off when he caught a whiff of something. Something familiar. Something that made him feel a fuzzy good kind of warmth. The feeling was very distinct from the burning and painful feeling of rage and anger.

The confusion over his feelings allowed him to hear something he would have disregarded mere seconds before. It was the sound of a sob, a very, very soft sob. Oddly, it made him feel worse than the pain from the demon chakra and demonic rage surging through his body. He didn't know why, but he felt he would do anything to make that sound stop and make this girl clinging to him feel better and happy. He wanted Hinata to be happy and for her never to cry again.

Narto's mind had been taken over by the Kyuubi's chakra. It was being ruled by rage and anger, but Hinata was pulling him out of it. Without realizing how or why, Naruto was reverting back to his human form. The Kyuubi's chakra started to subside and the number of tails decreased. Naruto started to look human again. Then all the rage and anger that made up the Kyuubi was gone. All of the demon fox's chakra was sealed inside a cage in Naruto's stomach again. He was left holding a crying Hinata close to him and trying to calm her. His whole body ached and burned because the damage the Kyuubi's chakra did to it when it was being drawn out at such levels. But now the Kyuubi's chakra was doing its normal job of starting to heal those wounds.

Naruto wasn't concerned about the pool of blood he was standing in, moslty his own, or about the extreme protest of now healing wounds as he moved. His mind was set on one thing, one person again. Only this time it wasn't hate and a desire to kill that controlled him. It was love that guided his desire to comfort the shy and scared girl that was now starting to regain control of herself. Her sobs were starting to subside as she looked up into his concerned and slightly happy face. He surrounded her with the warmth of a comfortable embrace and allowed her to hold on tighter.

Sakura woke up a two days later. Hinata was smiling when she looked at her dutiful nurse. Hinata, being the only one left conscious with medical training had been given the duty of taking care of Sakura while Shikamaru and Naruto guarded Shiro. Hinata informed her that the wedding had been postponed a day because of the attack. It was late afternoon when Sakura was finally able to get out of bed unassisted. The reception would already be underway and the happy couple would be married. There would no more real immediate threat from the Sound, and the Cloud had just as much to gain from this marriage as the Fire country did, if not more.

Shiro would be spending a couple more days in the capital for political and business reasons, but for all intents and purposes, the hard part of the job was done. Shiro had again been an arrogant prick, but this time it wasn't to the team of ninja protecting him. Actually he had become a lot nicer to them than he had ever even considered to be before. He was bragging to everyone that 'his' ninja team was the only one to survive the battle. The Cloud nin did not count because they did not engage. Hinata and Sakura were able to save some of the wounded ninja from dying, but fallen ninja's wounds were not superficial.

The entirety of the Fire Lord's own hired ninja were killed and any of the other nobles' ninja who had engaged had also died. The fire lord had actually tried to hire Shikamaru, Naruto and Hinata to be permanent palace guards. He didn't offer for Sakura because she was unconscious, and he didn't know the she was part of the team, let alone had been involved. The three Leaf-nins had politely declined the offer. Their loyalties were to their friends and village. This saddened the Fire Lord some because ninja still directly associated with their village were more expensive to hire than missing nin.

Shikamaru had sent a message to the Hokage as soon as he could. The message was short and direct, but also encryped. The message would only tell of music on the wind moving the leaves and making fire die and smolder, if the person reading didn't know the code. The basic information on the attack had been given in the message though a much more detailed report would be required when the mission was completed. Shikamaru also sent a second message, this time without any form of code, relating a request by the Fire lord for a 10 man team of chuunin or higher to be used as protection for his family and guards for his estate. This was odd because he usually only requested or allowed jounins to guard his estate and family. Shikamaru's team must have impressed him a little bit. It didn't help that the four of them had been part of the most talented class to graduate from the academy for a long time.

After Sakura was brought up to speed on the last two days and informed of her medical condition, she got dressed an both kunoichi left the room that had been given to them by Shiro. They made it onto the roof easily enough and quickly jumped off in the direction of the reception and their two teammates.

Author's Note:

Well, This is the end of this story. I'm glad a lot of you liked this story and enjoyed reading it. I probably won't be writing again for a while, school is getting hard again. Prog for this semester is coming up. I doubt I will write a sequel to this story, it already is a sequel to my previous romance "Lonely Birthday". I no this is a short ending, and a little anti-climactic for those of you looking for a fight. Any way, I hope you enjoyed reading the story and will continue reading and have fun with other people's works. I have to give thanx publicly to Crystlshake for helping me with the feel and flow of this story. The story's quality was improved by the help given.


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